Dallas off-road and recreation advocates are working with the City of Dallas to build what they’re calling “the largest, U.S. mountain bike trail system in an urban core.” The trails will be part of The Loop Dallas, a cycling infrastructure project with paved trails around the major city.
The park will sit on a 500-acre parcel called Creekside Park and within 10 miles of over 600,000 people, bolstering community access to natural surface trails.
“To put this park into national perspective: Because of The Loop Dallas trail and the location of Creekside Park one mile south of White Rock Lake, more people are within 10 miles of this mountain bike trail system than live in the entire state of Wyoming,” said Philip Hiatt Haigh, the executive director of The Loop Dallas. “With unprecedented access to this population center, most of the trails will be for entry-level mountain-bike riders and children, making the sport accessible to a new and broad audience.”
The mountain bike trails will be built alongside the paved Trinity Forest Spine Trail to make the park more accessible. Loop Dallas board members sought advice from advocates and builders in Bentonville in 2022, who advised the Loop to build close to population centers to make the trails accessible during residents’ busy days and to make the trails beginner-friendly.
“This will be the first natural surface trail built in the City of Dallas in decades” said Sean Laughlin, the Dallas Off-Road Biking Association’s director of development in a press release. “This trail system will give Dallas residents the opportunity to experience nature without having to leave the city as well as allow Dallas to compete with suburbs like McKinney and Frisco, which are investing in mountain bike parks and trails that residents are asking for.”
Singletrack Trails, who recently completed major trail building projects in Colorado, Arkansas, and other states is building the mountain bike trails. The park is expected to open by the end of summer and there should be about four miles of singletrack and downhill skills trails.
