6 parks for mountain biking in and around Adelaide

Are you inspired to be a bit more adven­tur­ous with your rid­ing and go some­where you wouldn’t normally?

In South Aus­trali­a’s nation­al parks, there’s high-qual­i­ty trails with­in 30 min­utes of the CBD so there’s no need to restrict your­self to rid­ing on roads and paved paths.

Get your wheels dusty and expe­ri­ence the nat­ur­al beau­ty of our bush­land with a hit of moun­tain bik­ing.

Here’s 6 parks to get you start­ed – all just a short dis­tance from cen­tral Adelaide: 

1. Sturt Gorge

With more than 40 km of sin­gle track, moun­tain-bik­ing through Sturt Gorge Recre­ation Park, locat­ed 13 km south of Ade­laide, is a great way to explore Adelaide’s nat­ur­al her­itage and high val­ue ecosystem.

Enjoy the race-ready trails in the Craig­burn Farm area, or take a longer ride all the way around the gorge.

Rider’s tip:Start with the ​‘Surf and Turf’ trail in the Craig­burn Farm area to find your feet, then make your way to Gun­ners Run via Lit­tle Riv­er, a fun flow trail for more expe­ri­enced rid­ers. Con­tin­ue down to Horner’s Cor­ner if you’re game to attempt the full 25 km loop. The cool shady areas of the Wat­tle Trail and the fun flow of the Loman­dra and de Rose Trails will make it worth your while.

2. Shep­herds Hill

Despite being a small park, Shep­herds Hill Recre­ation Park (locat­ed 11 km south of Ade­laide) con­tains 16 km of moun­tain bike trails. Trails include fam­i­ly friend­ly green cir­cle loops, short but tough cross-coun­try loops, and fun inter­me­di­ate down­hill runs.

Rider’s tip: Start and fin­ish with a few laps of the Pump Track and Kids’ Zone obsta­cles at the Ayliffes Road entrance.

3. Belair

Belair Nation­al Park, locat­ed 13 km south-east of Ade­laide, has a great range of trails for every­one, from begin­ners to more expe­ri­enced rid­ers. The park is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble direct­ly from pub­lic trans­port – from North Ter­race in Ade­laide you and your bike can ride the train all the way there. From the Belair Rail­way Sta­tion you can go for a chal­leng­ing spin around the park on the 12 km Adven­ture Loop.

Rider’s tip: For some­thing a bit less stren­u­ous, take the fam­i­ly and trun­dle around the fire trails from Play­ford Lake to the adven­ture playground.

4. Cle­land

Locat­ed only 22 km from Ade­laide, Cle­land Nation­al Park has an exten­sive moun­tain bik­ing track net­work.

If you haven’t been moun­tain bik­ing at Cle­land before, then check out what’s in store at this park with our moun­tain bik­ing guide to Cleland.

Rider’s tip: Climb the Cham­bers Gul­ly and Bar­tril Spur Track to Cle­land Wildlife Park. From there, con­tin­ue up to Mount Lofty Sum­mit to enjoy the views of the Ade­laide plains below, before wind­ing back down via the Wine Shan­ty Trail.

5. Cob­bler Creek

Cob­bler Creek Recre­ation Park, locat­ed 19 km north of Ade­laide, is per­fect for intro­duc­ing kids to moun­tain biking.

Try the Begin­ners’ Cir­cuit or ​‘Easy Does It’ moun­tain bik­ing trails at Cob­bler Creek, or join the big kids on the new Jump Tracks in Pedler’s Paddock.

Rider’s tip: The new slope-style jump tracks are huge­ly pop­u­lar since open­ing in Octo­ber 2016. With 3 dif­fer­ent dif­fi­cul­ty lev­els, you can work your way up to the big stuff.

6. Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta (for­mer O’Halloran Hill Recre­ation Park)

Check out the 8 km of trails in the for­mer O’Halloran Hill Recre­ation Park sec­tion of Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta, locat­ed 16 km south of Adelaide.

The trails use the steep­er parts of the park to pro­vide some great down­hill options, with trails rang­ing from easy through to inter­me­di­ate and advanced.

Don’t for­get to vis­it Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice’s web­site to check for any alerts or clo­sures before you hit the trails.

Rider’s tip: These grav­i­ty trails are fun! With ded­i­cat­ed climbs to bring you right back to the top of the trails, you’ll be able to try them all. Check out the Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta trails map for more information.

Can’t get enough of moun­tain bik­ing? Check out our blogs on moun­tain bik­ing at Anstey Hill and bik­ing spots along the Riv­er Mur­ray.

Just remem­ber, bike rid­ing in parks is per­mit­ted on des­ig­nat­ed tracks and trails. Where these are shared-use tracks, watch out for and be cour­te­ous to oth­er rid­ers, hors­es, and walk­ers. For more infor­ma­tion about moun­tain bik­ing in parks, check out Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice’s web­site.

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed in Jan­u­ary 2017.

Main image:Sturt Gorge Recre­ation Park(image cour­tesy of Flow Moun­tain Bike)