Highland Mountain Bike Park

Photo: Highland Mountain Bike Park

Overview:

Highland Mountain Bike Park is located near Tilton, NH and is one of the best mtb meccas on the east coast! Despite looking like a run down ski resort at first glance, Highland is a bike park, and just a bike park that even opens to downhill fat biking one day during the off season. The park has around 30 trails, plus 13 cross country (some are enduro) trails at the side of the mountain!

Pros:

You’re gonna find plenty at highland to keep you busy. Whether it be the addictive jumplines like Cat’s Paw and Hellion, the epic backcountry descent of Faux Pine, the massive slopestyle features on NE Style and Claymore Course, the double black gnar of ODB, ODC, and Threshold, plus a foam pit, dirt jump park, and a rubber landing jumpline perfect for practicing tricks! Despite not being built by gravity logic unlike neighboring parks in the area, the trails at highland have their own unique character. You can see this on Cat’s paw with its many option lines, on Happy Hour with it’s fast paced flow, and on ODB with its rock slabs to catch berms. Plus they have a black jumpline called Hellion which runs the same, if not better, than a gravity logic jump trail!

Cons:

Because I usually ride places like Mountain Creek and Thunder Mountain, one big let down of Highland was the low elevation combined with crazy long lift lines. More than once I found myself waiting for eternity to get just one lap in, only for the run to go by in what felt like thirty seconds. What adds to this logistical nightmare is the slow chairlift, however it is a short ride so this isn’t that much of a let down.

Rating (Bike Park Scale): 7.5/10

However short the mountain might be, you can get around this by sessioning some features, and hitting the trails to the left of the chairlift as well as technical trails like Eastern hemlock and Jack Rabbit Run. These runs feel a lot longer than trails like Cat’s Paw, Fancy Feast, and ODB which I think run straight down a shorter part of the mountain. Besides that, there isn’t much to complain about at Highland and I think it’s still one of the best bike parks I’ve ever ridden!