Quote:
Originally Posted by kcchiefsus
I plan on making a trip over to the Bentonville area soon. Any suggestions on which trail or trails would be best to hit up first?
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What sort of riding do you like to do? The Back40 (and Blowing Springs) is probably the most fun with widest variety of options, currently. Coler is really great and has the highest downhill difficulty. Slaughter Pen is the oldest and has a huge variety of different rides as well. The good news is that you can hit good portions of all of these on a given weekend.
If you're more into a XC style without too much technical difficulty, then Hobbs State Park is awesome (also best place to ride if it's been raining a lot, which it looks like we're entering a dry pattern now). If you like really technical climbs and descents with a really natural and "wild" feel, then check out Mt. Kessler down in Fayetteville. The Railyard bike park is also a lot of fun with 3 different flow lines of varying levels and a jump park (its opening is highly weather dependent, though, and it closes with just a little bit of rain and stays closed until completely dry).
Are you camping or staying in a hotel? There are also some MTB friendly AirBnBs right on the trail. I'd highly recommend staying in downtown Bentonville (21C is your best bet for a hotel... really nice boutique artsy hotel that isn't crazy expensive), because you can literally get everything you need and want to do without ever getting into your car again once you get to downtown Bentonville (barring deciding that you want to ride Kessler in Fayetteville or Hobbs State Park).
I'll be happy to answer any other questions you have about suggestions for places to eat or other things to do.
Oztrails has become the sort of "catchall" branding for the overall area, and their website has pretty good overviews and maps. Everything is also on MTBProject and Trailforks. If you have questions about specific trails or rides, I'll be happy to answer.