After years of imagining, fundraising and building, Colorado is getting a new cycling playground.

In the north-central mountains between Leadville and Vail, the free Minturn Bike Park is set for an opening celebration Saturday, Aug. 29.

Constructed by highly regarded FlowRide Concepts, the park is “designed for all users, whether you’re a first-timer on a bike or you’re an expert wanting to jump 20 feet in the air,” said Ernest Saeger, executive director of Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance, the group behind the project.

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Flowing singletrack, pump tracks and dirt jumps along with bridges and other wood features converge in an 8-acre spread. Riders will test their skills under the gaze of surrounding slopes and cliffs and the regal, 14,000-foot Mount of the Holy Cross.

“You’d be hard-pressed to show me a picture with a better backdrop than Minturn Bike Park,” Saeger said.

The site was initially a gravel pit in the 1970s, he said. Three years ago, VVMTA was building a kid-friendly trail in the area when advocates looked down and saw the place for the amenity long missing from their bike-loving valley.

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The bike park’s vacancy has been due, in part, “to land here usually being developed or sold for large amounts of money,” Saeger said. The parcel belonging to the town of Minturn was at one point listed for $1.1 million, he said.

But town officials saw an economic opportunity for the park — and later demonstrated that with a pledge of $47,000. They partnered with VVMTA, which raised $50,000 in 2019. To achieve a 2020 opening, Saeger said the nonprofit decided to commit $75,000 from its reserve funds.

“It’s by far our biggest spend, by far the biggest risk we’ve taken in our nine-year existence,” he said. “But it’ll be absolutely worth it.”

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