{"id":1892126,"date":"2026-04-20T10:22:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1892126"},"modified":"2026-04-20T10:22:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:22:00","slug":"with-50-miles-of-trails-and-2300-feet-of-vert-valemount-bike-park-is-bcs-hidden-gem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1892126","title":{"rendered":"With 50+ miles of trails and 2,300 feet of vert, Valemount Bike Park is BC\u2019s hidden gem"},"content":{"rendered":"
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All photos by Aaron Theisen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Six hours west of Calgary, AB, and eight hours east of Vancouver, tiny Valemount, BC, has morphed from a waystation to a destination for mountain bikers throughout western Canada and beyond, thanks to Valemount Bike Park.<\/p>\n

Occupying an enviable position at the intersection of three mountain ranges and in the shadow of iconic Mount Robson, the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies, Valemount has long attracted snowmobilers. But its status as a dirt destination didn\u2019t materialize until a dozen years ago. And mountain bikers have sledheads to thank for it.<\/p>\n

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Snowmobilers built a bike park, and it changed everything<\/h2>\n

Around 2012, a local mountain bike club solicited the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) to develop a trails master plan for the steep lower slopes of Mount McKirdy on the east edge of downtown, but that club had no capacity to turn the lines on a map into reality.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThen, in 2014, I convinced a bunch of snowmobile businesses to build mountain bike trails,\u201d says Curtis Pawliuk, the long-time executive director of Valemount and Area Recreation Development Association (VARDA).<\/p>\n

Formed as a snowmobile club in the \u201990s, VARDA transitioned to a recreation development organization in 2004. In the early 2010s, though, trail building was still as new to the organization as it was to the area. Nonetheless, VARDA stepped up to shepherd the trails plan that was to become Valemount Bike Park.<\/p>\n

A lifelong mountain biker who grew up three hours to the west in Prince George, surrounded by the plentiful trails of the Thompson-Okanagan region, Pawliuk knew the struggle\u2014and potential\u2014of an empty map. Twelve years and roughly as many project phases later, Valemount Bike Park has grown from lines on a map to a true destination.<\/p>\n

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More than 50 miles of trails span two mountains and 2,300 feet of vertical<\/h2>\n

More than 50 miles of trails span the bases of two mountains flanking Valemount. The 5 Mile Road zone boasts the bulk of the bike park\u2019s directional trails, and a second trailhead at Swift Creek accesses a newer network of traditional cross-country trails. Although pedalers can access the top of the 5 Mile zone via CBT\u2019s Munday Grind, a loping, forested climbing trail, the vast majority of riders shuttle the 5 Mile Access Road, a well-graded gravel road suitable for two-wheel-drive vehicles. Lower- and mid-mountain landings allow riders to section off as much of the 2,300 feet of vertical as they care to, with multiple options in the mix anywhere on the mountain. The wood features of Womp Rat and the low-consequence doubles of Bacon by NDIT make great palette cleansers to finish off a top-to-bottom run or a hot lap for short-timers or those just short on time.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur goal was, the way the topography works, every segment, if the land would allow it, we wanted at least a green, blue, and a black,\u201d says Pawliuk.<\/p>\n

From the top of the shuttle road, riders can drop into a handful of blue descents. But the highlight of the upper trail system is the black-diamond High Roller, often referred to as \u201cA-Line of the North\u201d by repeat visitors, and for good reason: the big airs are matched only by the big views.<\/p>\n

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A top-to-bottom lap that\u2019ll make you a believer<\/h2>\n

For a project that\u2019s snowballed through phases as fast as a lap down High Roller, the trails feel remarkably of a piece, and of their place, sculpted into the glacier-ground granite boulders and boreal forest characteristic of this region. A top-to-bottom run on High Roller, Turducken, Stump Town, and Moby Dick highlights the diversity and cohesion of the network: the skyscraping tables of High Roller flow naturally into the rock booters and drops of Turducken, which in turn flow into the snaking sidehill roots of Stump Town.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you can find a better lap, I\u2019d love to see it,\u201d says Pawliuk. \u201cAnd if you can ride it without stopping, I won\u2019t believe you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The views give riders reason to stop and get out their phones, though. From the top of the trail system, riders look across the Rocky Mountain Trench, with the peaks of the Cariboo Mountains framing the tabletops and doubles of High Roller, and the bike park appearing to hover over the town of Valemount.<\/p>\n

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How a bike park became the heartbeat of a town of 900<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s representative of the way the bike park has come to have an outsized presence in this town of 900. Pawliuk is upfront that VARDA built the trails primarily to drive tourism.<\/p>\n

Owing to its location as a portal to Jasper National Park and a stop on the Yellowhead Highway, which connects the four westernmost provinces of Canada, Valemount has always done a good business with the gas-and-go crowd of long-haul truckers and road-tripping families. But the challenge, as with many towns this size, is how to get cars\u2014and money\u2014flowing into downtown.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve been in this role for 20 years, and our goal was always \u2018How do we get people to pull in off the highway?\u2019 Then, \u2018How do we get them to stay for two days?’\u201d<\/p>\n

VARDA tapped into the massive market of snowmobilers, many of them skewing younger and in search of a second hobby, who were already familiar with Valemount, to raise awareness of the park. Coupled with word of mouth amongst mountain bikers in the region, the bike park\u2019s reputation grew as quickly as its trail mileage did.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s always easy to oversell the \u201cmountain biking saved our town\u201d narrative, but in Valemount, the bike park is such a prominent part of the city\u2019s identity that its role in the growth of the community can\u2019t be denied. Now, one of the first things drivers see after the street-spanning Valemount welcome arch are signs directing them through downtown toward the bike park.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, it surprised us all,\u201d says Pawliuk. \u201cWe had no idea the impact it would have on the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the bike shops, which weren\u2019t even thought of until halfway through the history of this trail system. You look at the pizzeria, the food trucks, the Yellowhead Campground, which is full all summer long with bikers\u2014none of that would be sustainable without the trail system,\u201d says Pawliuk.<\/p>\n

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Some riders, having experienced the bike park, have chosen to stay much more than a long weekend: Pawliuk credits the trails for expanding the demographics of the community as families and retirees relocate to Valemount.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have people selling houses in Revelstoke to move to Valemount, but they wouldn\u2019t have done that if the trails weren\u2019t here,\u201d says Pawliuk. \u201cTo have people leave Squamish, and leave Revy, to come to Valemount, those are pretty cool success stories for the town.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pull into the 5 Mile parking lot on a summer weekend, and, amongst the pop-up shelters and portable grills, there are plates from all throughout BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Washington\u2014impressive for anywhere, let alone a community of 900 that\u2019s six hours from any city with a six-figure population. Turns out, the middle of nowhere is halfway to everywhere.<\/p>\n

Know about a new trail project we should cover?<\/strong> Whether you\u2019re breaking ground on the next must-ride destination or putting the finishing touches on a neighborhood flow trail, we want to hear about it. Drop us a line at [email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/a> with high-quality photos of your build, plus details like trail mileage, location, difficulty, and what makes it special. We\u2019re always on the hunt for the next great trail story, and there\u2019s a good chance your project could be featured in an upcoming article.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!–<\/p>\n

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All photos by Aaron Theisen Six hours west of Calgary, AB, and eight hours east of Vancouver, tiny Valemount, BC, has morphed from a waystation to a destination for mountain bikers throughout western Canada and beyond, thanks to Valemount Bike Park. Occupying an enviable position at the intersection of three mountain ranges and in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,274],"class_list":["post-1892126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-singletracks-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1892126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1892126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1892126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1892126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1892126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1892126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}