I live about 15 minutes from where this thing is being built, and I'll be honest — I've been watching the chairlift go up for months with the same feeling you get the night before a trip. That mix of excited and slightly nervous that's hard to explain to anyone who doesn't ride.

OZ Trails Bike Park opens June 12, 2026, and I'll be there. A select group of riders got a preview about a month ago — I wasn't on it, the tickets ran around $200 for a two-hour ride and that wasn't in the cards for me — so my first laps will be on opening weekend, same as most of you reading this. What follows is everything I know as a local intermediate rider before I've dropped in, written for visiting riders who are asking the same question I am: is this place actually going to be good for us, or just for the pros sending massive gaps?

Here's what I've pieced together.

What It Is

Arkansas's first chairlift-served mountain bike park. That sentence still sounds a little surreal if you've been riding NWA for any length of time. A high-speed detachable quad chairlift — the same style you'd find at a ski resort — carrying riders 2,600 feet to the top in under four minutes, then sending them down 20-plus miles of purpose-built gravity trails across 200 acres on the Bentonville-Bella Vista border, right off Highway 71 at Mercy Way.

20+
Miles of trail
200
Acres
<4 min
Lift to the top

The trails were built by Gravity Logic, the same crew behind Whistler Bike Park in British Columbia. That's not a small thing. Whistler is widely considered the best bike park in the world. Gravity Logic knows how to build trails that are both technically excellent and genuinely fun for riders who aren't professionals.

What's There Beyond The Trails

The base area — called OZ Trails HQ — is a full destination. Bike rentals, a retail shop, a bike school with pro-led instruction (five-time world champion Annika Beerten is involved in developing it), a pump track, a dirt jump zone, large-scale art installations, and a restaurant and bar called Ozzy's Ride and Dine with a rooftop deck overlooking the lift. The HQ and grounds are free and open to the public, so even non-riders have a reason to show up.

For visiting riders, the bike rental situation alone is significant — you can fly into Bentonville without a bike, rent at the park, and start lapping immediately.

What The Social Media Isn't Telling You

If you've seen the coverage of this park on Instagram or YouTube, you've seen massive gaps, pro riders sending doubles, and features that would make most of us instinctively reach for our brakes. That's what gets clicks. It's not the full picture.

The actual numbers: roughly 75% of the trails are designed for beginners and intermediate riders. Greens and blues. Only about 25% is the gnarly stuff built to draw the pros and the gravity-obsessed. The social media hype has focused on the extreme stuff because that's what goes viral.

If you've ridden Bentonville before, that ratio won't surprise you. The whole philosophy here — across the entire NWA trail network — is that world-class doesn't mean inaccessible. Trails like Wildfire and Finras at Slaughter Pen are beginner-friendly flows with low-risk tabletops that are genuinely fun at any speed. The Rim Trail is a great technical trail that you can ride at a comfortable blue pace or push into single-black territory if you're sending it. From everything I've heard, the bike park was built with the same ethos.

What To Expect As An Intermediate Rider

I haven't ridden it yet, so I won't pretend otherwise. But this is my honest read, stated as my opinion, based on years of riding NWA trails and everything reported from the preview:

Blue trails

Going to have real character. If you're coming from a trail system where blues are basically flat gravel paths, recalibrate. NWA blues have tech, features that ask you to commit, and flow that rewards riders who trust their skills. That's a good thing — just know it going in.

Black trails

Going to have consequences. Single blacks typically have bypass options around the biggest features — that matters for intermediates pushing their limits. Double blacks won't have those options. If you're not sure which category you're in, start on greens, work up to blues, and watch a few people run the blacks before you decide.

The chairlift itself is worth mentioning. If you've never loaded a bike onto a ski-resort-style lift, there's a small learning curve — you'll slot your front wheel into a tray, sit down quickly, and the chair moves fast. The advice I keep hearing: don't overthink it, move efficiently when you load and unload, and you'll be fine after your first run. Everyone fumbles it once. That's part of the experience.

Opening Weekend Reality Check

June 12 is going to be a scene. The park opens the same day as Bentonville Bike Fest 2026, already the biggest cycling festival in the mid-South. Thousands of riders will be in town specifically for the festival, and a significant chunk of them are going to want to lap the new park on opening weekend.

I'm going to be there, but I'm going in with realistic expectations about lift lines. There will be RedBull athletes and viral edits and people sending things that will make your jaw drop. There will also be a lot of people figuring out the lift for the first time, trails that haven't been worn in yet, and the general chaos of a brand new facility finding its rhythm.

My honest take: if you're visiting Bentonville for the bike fest and want to hit the park, go — it'll be an experience you'll talk about. Just build in extra time and don't plan wall-to-wall laps on day one. If you're visiting in July or August after the dust settles, you'll get a cleaner picture of what the park actually is day-to-day.

Getting There

The park is at Highway 71 and Mercy Way on the Bentonville-Bella Vista border. From downtown Bentonville it's a 10–15 minute drive north. Parking is on-site with reportedly 200–300 spaces. On opening weekend that will fill up fast — get there early.

Pricing for daily and season passes hasn't been announced yet as of this writing. Check oztrails.com for updates and sign up for their email list — that's where pass announcements will land first. If they offer a season pass at a reasonable price, I'll personally be there three to five times a week after work.

The Bottom Line

A chairlift in the Ozarks is something I didn't think I'd see in my lifetime, and the fact that it's 15 minutes from my house is still hard to believe. But if Bentonville has taught us anything, it's that this region builds trails for everyone. My read is that the intermediate trails here are going to be excellent — well-built, properly rated, and worth every lap.

I'll be riding it opening weekend and posting my full first-ride report within a couple of days — enough time to actually ride it, sit with my thoughts, and give you something useful rather than just hype. First impressions, which trails I'd send an intermediate visitor to first, what I'd hold off on until you've got a few laps in, and the honest word on whether the lift line is worth the wait.

Full ride report coming mid-June.

Get The First-Ride Report In Your Inbox

Sign up and I'll send my review straight to you the day it drops.