Welcome to Oz
The Trail Blog

Welcome to Oz

Over the past two decades, trail building in Northwest Arkansas has evolved from rogue volunteer enthusiasts bushwhacking through the Ozarks into a world-class operation with a professional infrastructure building the finest trails on the planet. What has resulted is...
Coler Mountain Bike Preserve: Cease and Desist
The Trail Blog

Coler Mountain Bike Preserve: Cease and Desist

They say reverse psychology is a hell of a temptation, and it’s almost certainly what Coler Mountain Bike Preserve’s trail builders, NWA Trailblazers, and Progressive Trail Design were thinking when they dreamt up Cease and Desist. With a name that screams “Stay...
Ride Report: Slaughter Pen Trails
The Trail Blog

Ride Report: Slaughter Pen Trails

In the beginning, there was Slaughter Pen. Before Coler Preserve, before the Back 40, the 2006 greenlighting of 25-plus miles of singletrack at Slaughter Pen—a historic former livestock operation in Bentonville—spurred a now-storied trail-building boom in Northwest...
Lake Leatherwood: ‘A True Work of Trail Art’
The Trail Blog

Lake Leatherwood: ‘A True Work of Trail Art’

In Northwest Arkansas’ “far east,” lies Eureka Springs, a Victorian village in the heart of the Ozarks. But just north of town—past the galleries and cottages and antiquing—Eureka Springs draws a decidedly different group of visitors–the adrenaline junkies.  The...
Back 40 Bluff: Take the Long Way Around
The Trail Blog

Back 40 Bluff: Take the Long Way Around

Along the Back 40 Loop in Bella Vista, Arkansas, there is a stretch of trail dwarfed by 40 feet of limestone bluff, an imposing overhang that tethers cool air to the forest floor, waiting to take the edge off a sweaty summer ride. Photocourtesy of ArkansasOutside.com...
Ride Like a Local: Lake Atalanta
The Trail Blog

Ride Like a Local: Lake Atalanta

Just a few blocks from the bustling downtown of Rogers, Arkansas, lies the trailhead for Lake Atalanta, a local gem with appealing features for everyone in your pack. Fully renovated in 2015, the park reopened with four miles of well-lit hard surface trails that wind...
Hanging Bridge at the Back 40
The Trail Blog

Hanging Bridge at the Back 40

Along Northwest Arkansas’ Highway 71 in Bella Vista, among the dense forest and towering rock of the Ozarks, blink and you might miss a flash of chrome and color as riders tear around the corner of Hanging Bridge. Hanging Bridge, a 100-foot section on the Back 40, is...
Berm Me Up, Scottie: AREA 51 in Bella Vista
The Trail Blog

Berm Me Up, Scottie: AREA 51 in Bella Vista

Ten minutes from the Missouri border, Blowing Springs Park in Bella Vista, Arkansas, has long been a destination for mountain bikers, boasting flowy trails, daring cliff rides and impressive rock drops. Out of the saddle, waterfalls, 60 degree “air-conditioned” caves...
Labor Of Love: Mount Kessler
The Trail Blog

Labor Of Love: Mount Kessler

Inside the city limits of Fayetteville lies a hand-cut gem, an 1,800-foot-peak home to ancient stands of post-oak, boulders the size of Volkswagens and 13 miles of multi-use natural surface trails spanning 387 acres for mountain bikers, trail-runners and nature...
Fitzgerald Mountain in Springdale
The Trail Blog

Fitzgerald Mountain in Springdale

The Mt. Fitzgerald experience is what can happen when you give an expert trail builder, who left his mark on some of the lines at Red Bull Rampage, 130 acres on the east side of Springdale and ask him to create a trail system that most levels of riders can get into....