Canmore Bike Parks

Canmore Bike Parks

"Build it and they will come"

The Millennium Park and Benchlands Trail Bike Skills Parks

It took almost four years of planning and organizing and just about two weeks of construction to make it a reality but Canmore now has two more fine bike skills parks for locals and visitors to play in and to work on improving on their mountain bike technical skills. In addition to these new parks don't forget the one in the Camore Nordic Centre as well.

Town of Canmore planner in charge of parks and open spaces, Jamie Carpenter, gets a big salute of thanks from Bow Valley mountain bikers for the tremendous effort and dedication he put into making this dream come true. Now in addition to the skills park at the Nordic Centre, Canmore has two more great parks that each have their own character and strengths providing different

skills-learning challenges and rewards for those willing to cycle up and start having fun.
The skills park constructed in Millennium Park in Canmore is centrally located and has a lot of sweet man-made features that are designed to offer a graduated learning experience for riders looking to improve their technical riding. These skills then can become a real asset when they are fine-tuned and applied to real trail conditions on the many great mountain bike trails in Canmore, K-country and Banff National Park.

The second park, called the Benchlands Trail Bike Park is just north of the TransCanada Highway off Benchlands Trail near the old cemetery. It may be a little harder to find but the rewards are there once you do.
The beauty of these parks, both of which are designed to appeal more to beginner and intermediate level riders, is that the features are interesting and don't have big-air consequences for riders who miss the line as the stunts are mostly relatively close to the ground.
The parks were designed by well-known Vancouver bike park designer, Jay Hoots. Jay was able to come up with exactly the type of vision that Jamie had for these play grounds. Each park has a natural and gradual progression of learning that helps to bring confidence and satisfaction to newer riders and yet offers a lot of fun rewards to more experienced riders. Many thanks Jay for the excellent parks you have given us! And a big thank you as well to the Town of Canmore for recognizing the need for these facilities and providing most of the funding. Of course the Rundle Mountain Cycling Club, led by President Scott Manktelow, deserves praise and thanks for their support and committment to the success of the parks.

The rapid completion of the parks was due to a large extent to the some fifty volunteers of all ages who gave their time and put their passion into the projects. A huge thank you and congratulations goes out to all these people, especially the youngsters who we know are already spending lots of time playing here.

We are hopeful that these two parks will be not only fun places for young riders to hang out, but also will reduce the desire of some riders to build riding structures that are often unsafe and in secret locations in the woods. Give mountain bikers more of what they want and this will both help keep riders in areas where they are welcome and out of sensitive habitat. That is one of the hopes and one of the philosophies behind these parks. Canmore has many issues with wildlife corridors and as responsible riders sharing this terrain we must all try to help make the Bow Valley a safer and more environmentally sustainable community both to recreate in and for the wildlife that lives around us.