Montgomery Parks unveiled a new addition to Wheaton Regional Park. The Gravity Mountain Bike Park, located in the woods behind the Adventure Playground, adjacent to the upper parking lot of the Shorefield entrance to Wheaton Regional Park, offers intermediate riders a terrain to hone their skills.
The park offers two courses, each designed to challenge riders’ skills. The green course introduces riders to dirt berms, dirt tabletops, and rollers. For more experienced cyclists, the blue course includes a start platform, jump sections, and wooden berm turns.
With a combined length of nearly a mile, both routes cater to moderately experienced bike riders looking to elevate their skills. The park follows the traditional gravity mountain bike park design, featuring directional downhill trails that require little to no pedaling. Riders navigate through a series of rollers, turns, and jumps before reaching the lowest point.
Safety remains a priority at the facility. While it operates on a ride-at-your-own-risk policy, helmets are “strongly encouraged for all riders and required for those 18 years and younger.”
Bob Turnbull, Montgomery Parks’ natural surface trails program manager, emphasized the park’s role in skill development. “This new bike park is a great spot for adventure riders to build their skills on challenging terrain. Once riders start the course, it’s all downhill with multiple challenges to navigate,” he explained.
Turnbull recommended that riders begin with the green course to familiarize themselves with the park’s features before progressing to the blue course.
According to a press release, the Gravity Mountain Bike Park represents a step in realizing the vision first envisioned in the 2022 Wheaton Regional Park Master Plan update. This plan outlines priorities for park improvements over the next 15-20 years.
Miti Figueredo, director of Montgomery Parks, highlighted the broader context of this new addition. “This bike skills park is one of the first new projects in Wheaton Regional Park coming out of the recent master plan update,” Figueredo, said.
In addition to enhancing outdoor activities, Montgomery Parks offers various camping options at Little Bennett Campground. Outdoor enthusiasts can choose from tent sites, canvas tent sites, full hook-up sites, yurts, and cabins.
Tent sites are located on Loops A, B, C, and E, each equipped with a tent pad, picnic table, and fire-ring with a grill top. Loops A, C, and E also have bathhouses for easy access to showers and restrooms, with community water spigots conveniently located around the loops.
Yurts, located on Loop C, can accommodate up to six people with two full-size beds and two twin bunks, and are situated near the bathhouse. Each yurt includes a picnic table, fire-ring with a grill top, and an electrical outlet on the exterior. Pets are permitted in the yurts for an additional fee, but no open flames are allowed inside.
For more information about Montgomery Parks, visit montgomeryparks.org.