Telluride Mountain Bike Park
Rode there last year. Was a great experience. Anyone have experience on the bike park there?
I have ridden the Mountain Bike Park at Telluride Mountain Village.
I thought it was fun, especially the new trails. I ended up thinking that it was worth the $36 for a one day lift ticket.
A few things to expand on the previous posts:
-You can still put your bike on the gondola at any time for free, so going back and forth between the Town of Telluride and Mountain Village is still free.
-You can still ride the old XC trails (Village Trail, Prospect Trail, Sheridan, etc) for free by accessing them off the gondola mid point (San Sophia Station) when the Bike Park is closed. That means that you can ride them for free any day before 10:00 AM, or after 6:00 PM Monday through Thursday or after 4:30 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.
-If you want to ride the above mentioned XC trails during bike park hours, you purchase an "XC Pass" which is $25 for the season and supposedly is all donated to the National Forest Foundation.
About the Mountain Bike Park:
-The main way to access the trails is off of Lift 4 (Village Express Lift) which is right at the base of the mountain in Mountain Village. You do have to purchase a lift ticket in the office at the base before going up to the lift.
-Instead of a chair, about every third position or so on the lift is a bike holder which holds three bikes. You just roll your bike up into the tray, front wheel first, and then let the bike holder pass and then get on the next four person seat. At the top, the lift operator unloads your bike on the platform and holds it for you until you get off.
-The park has designated three of the new trails as "Freeride Trails." I would characterize them as "flow" trails. Ore Hopper is not open yet. A lift operator told me that "they are building like 100 jumps or something but they keep us in the dark about the opening."
-Shift Boss is a new "Freeride Trail" accessed off of Lift 4. It is rated as a Blue Square trail. It is like a roller coast ride on two wheels as it swoops down with high berm turns like Daytona and rises and falls. I felt like you could go through the corners fast enough to feel G forces. My initial ride down Shift Boss was fun enough that I didn't feel bad about buying a lift ticket. Unfortunately, Shift Boss is not a long segment and it drops you down into No Brainer. No Brainer is also a Blue trail and while it is fun, it is not as fast, smooth, and flowy as Shift Boss. No Brainer can either be ridden all the way to the bottom or you can take a fork on to one of the old Black Diamond trails like Coco Loco, T-Bone, World Cup, etc.
-Tommyknocker is another new "Freeride" trail rated as Green circle. It is accessed off of Lift 4 across the road from the lift. It is a fun, fast, flowy trail that is something like five miles long. It is fun for everyone ranging from little kids with their parents to enduro racers wanting to get in fast laps.
-If you mainly want to ride the old black diamond trails of the bike park, you might be better off accessing them off of the gondola San Sophia station. I didn't see many people riding that side of the park. You still need a lift ticket as the gate is staffed.
At the bottom by Lift 4 there is a wash station with a rack and three garden hoses. There is also a pump and tool station at the lift.
