Visiting the Bentonville, Arkansas Mountain Biking Mecca

An amusement park for mountain bikers! That is the best way I can describe my visit to Bentonville, Arkansas. With millions of dollars being funded to develop mountain biking trails and accommodations for bike access, this place is catering to the adventure seeking tourists, as well as real mountain bikers alike. On my first ride here, I looked down at my computer after hitting a few trails, out of breath, and an ear to ear smile, and realized I had only been riding for 13 minutes. With the minimal public space and forests they have near town, Friends of Arkansas Singletrack (FAST) and NWA Trailblazers managed to pack in so much fun into short, feature filled, flowing trails. So much so, that the town has given itself the nickname, “Mountain Biking Capitol of the World.” A bit much, yes, but still a fun place to ride bikes.

First off, pointing out the obvious, the existence of high quality mountain biking trails in Northwest Arkansas is shocking to most, and this included me prior to a few years ago. Well, Walmart founder Sam Walton’s two grandsons, Tom and Steuart Walton, took an interest in developing MTB trails with the help of their Walton Family Foundation and municipal tax dollars. Bentonville quickly was added to the short-list of mountain biking destinations, but the reality is that it would remain unchecked for half a decade since Arkansas is not close to, well, to be honest, anything. Bentonville, in driving time, is 12 hours East of Denver, 6 hours North of Dallas, and 18 hours west of D.C. Not that there isn’t plenty to do nearby between the University of Arkansas nearby and all of the fantastic lakes, it’s just not close to places where people are already mountain biking to make a trip of it or a weekend destination. 

Jumping to the comparisons, but if the mountain biking trails in Utah, Colorado, and California are to a summer blockbuster movie you go to the movies to experience, then the trails in Bentonville are more like a YouTube video and TikToks. Both, have their place, and both can be absolutely fun. Admittedly though, it all depends on your style of riding and what you’re looking for in a ride. Sure, one style will take you through ups and downs, develop a character, have challenges to overcome, and take you on a roller coaster of fun and emotions. While rides in Bentonville are short, jammed packed with features and exciting from start to finish to maintain 100% engagement, like a TikTok. Or for a more sport-related analogy, the Western trails, or even New England, rides are more similar to a multi-pitch or long route in rock climbing with challenges throughout, but not overly filled with one feature after another. While the rides here in Bentonville are more comparable to bouldering problems, packed with features, but over way too soon. Not saying one is better than the other, but distinctively different.

After pulling into town, and driving around for too long to find a place to park the van close to the Slaughter Pen trail system near the Bentonville main street. Riding right past the massive paper airplane sculpture, I finally got dirt under my tires. The All-American trail winds north with small features like skinnies and rollers to warm up on before making your way up, via Highway to Heaven, to the top of two separate hills that are great launch pads to hit flow trails and tech trails like Techgnar, Choo Choo, Moo Moo, and Boo Boo (great names, right?). Each trail is a tight, feature filled quick ride that are about 1/10th to 1/5th of a mile long. And all the trails take you right back to the up-track for a quick climb and another lap. Admittedly, your heart rate never comes down because of how quickly you finish the lap and are on the climb back uphill. To which, I was smiling nonstop being able to lap so quickly.

One thing I was shocked to see in this area was the amount of wooden features on the trails. Seemingly out of nowhere, a huge wooden berm or diving board come out of nowhere to add character to an otherwise unvarying wooded landscape. Trails like Free Time, Skid Marks, and Berm Creek have more wooden features than most bike parks in Utah. Paying homage to one of the OG Bike YouTubers, Seth from Berm Peak, I was stoked to stumble upon the namesake Berm Creek trail. An uncharacteristic trail for the area with a lack of vertical drop, but it plunges down a wooded ramp 50ft, climb along a wooden roller coaster before a surprising 6ft huck (to almost flat), followed by a creek gap jump (or a ride over bridge). Then a fantastic gap jump over the picnic table before a few berms and rollers to the end of the trail. All features paying tribute to the original Berm Peak backyard trails that Seth built and kicked off an entire genre of YouTubers. 

Just across the road, on the east side of Northeast A Street, there is another surprising set of trails with even more tech features, difficult climbs, and ripping descents! And in the short 14 miles that I was able to ride around in Bentonville, exclusively the Slaughter Pen area, I had an absolute blast. To top off the ride, I got to check off the aptly named “The Masterpiece” trail. The thumbnail for every Bentonville riding video, it’s a trail of rusted iron grates, rollers, and jumps that have railings made from massive chain links welded together. And to cap it all off, a massive bridge feature with a kicker on the uphill side before winding back down to the paved trail to head back uphill to the main set of trails near town. On the way back uphill, hopping back on the All-American trail to get back to the van, I kept thinking about how much fun this place is.

Bentonville has so many more trails, I barely touched the surface. Areas like Coler Mountain Bike Preserve, the expanse of trails in Bella Vista north of town, and HandCut Hollow. Over a hundred miles of trails, ranging from Blues to Double Black Diamonds. A bike town isn’t complete without talking about the town’s brewery scene, to which Bentonville has a plethora of breweries. There are 6 breweries all close to town making for an equally great day on a bike bouncing around between Bentonville Brewing Company and Bike Rack Brewing. Plus there’s the history of Walmart and a cute little main street which most biking areas definitely do not have. And if you’re looking for a reasonable place to stay that is very hyped on the bike crowd coming to visit, check out The Bike Inn. We were able to park our van there, but they also renovated the motel and have these little cabins on the property as well. Not right near the trail systems, but it’s a short drive or bike ride away to get to anywhere in Bentonville.

All in, I’m stoked I was able get here and ride. I do hope I am passing through, or close enough by, to come back and ride again. Regardless of the trail difficulty or length, the vibe here is amazing. The shear quantity of riders, of all shapes, sizes, and ages, were out on the trail and everyone was stoked. Albeit, a lot of riders were out on e-bikes and a lot of full-faced helmets, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. In the end, in my opinion, it’s hard to be a “Mountain Bike Capitol of the World” without mountains. The trails in Bentonville are incredibly fun, and by all accounts, much better quality than most of the riding I’ve done, but it’s hard to feel connected to a trail when they end so quickly. Personally, I think that a trail can only be as good as every foot you had to climb to reach the top of it. Maybe the earned sense of reward is what I’m chasing, maybe it’s the Type 2 fun I like most about mountain biking, but it’s hard to get that in short spurts of trails. But is the mountain biking here in Bentonville amazing? Yes. In it’s own way and without comparing it to anywhere else, Bentonville is awesome, but more accurately is the real Mountain Bike Capitol of… Arkansas.