Mountain biking in Arkansas may have its roots in squirrely cross-country trails hidden deep in the forest, but the future is gravity riding. We’ve covered two chairlift-served bike parks that are currently under development in the state, and now, Arkansas is joining the trend of shuttle-served bike parks on private land with the new Mulberry Mountain Gravity Park.
Mulberry Mountain (not to be confused with Mulberry Gap) is officially opening this weekend (March 6th, 2026) with an admirable 600 vertical feet of steep, shuttle-served ripping. Grant Rogers, Owner of Gradient Trails, also runs the NWA Downhill Revolution community on social media. Rogers polled his fans to learn about what types of trails they think Arkansas needs more of. “According to our results, it was 65% wanted steeper downhill trails in the area,” he said.
Gravity riders 🤝 Mulberry Mountain
Rogers set out on a mission to build the kind of trails that Arkansas gravity riders were longing for, and he found the perfect partner in Mulberry Mountain Lodging and Events. “Mulberry Mountain is about a 400-acre property that sits right in the middle of the Ozark National Forest,” said Dewey Patton with Mulberry Mountain Lodge, now the Manager of the Gravity Park. “So we’re completely surrounded on all sides by National Forest, which is kind of a unique setting for us.”
The property is located about an hour and a half southwest of Bentonville, a half-hour north of the town of Ozark and Interstate 40, and just over two hours from downtown Little Rock.
Mulberry offers nine cabins, a large lodge for big groups, a 70-site RV park, and primitive camping. The year-round facility already attracts plenty of traffic from the ATV and UTV crowd thanks to its direct access to seemingly endless dirt roads and OHV trails in the nearby National Forest.
“We’ve been here for about 20 years now,” said Patton. “So we do everything from the cabins and campgrounds, and we have a few occasional large events. We do some large music festivals, some overland kind of Jeep jamboree type events, some archery events, [and] several different little recreationally-minded type activities to go along with the lodging and camping out here.”
While the motorized crowd takes to the National Forest, Mulberry Mountain offered something that mountain bikers needed: substantial elevation on private land. The property provides a whopping 600 vertical feet of undeveloped mountainside for mountain bike trails, and if they can expand into the National Forest, things could get even better.
600ft of vertical could grow to 1,400
“We’ve started on our own private property here, but there’s a long-term vision to perhaps take some of these trails down into some of the National Forest terrain as well and create some longer tracks,” said Patton. The private property is located at the top of the mountain, and below their 600 vertical feet, Patton estimates there’s another 800ft of vertical in the National Forest. While nothing is approved yet, this could grow the downhill runs to a truly impressive 1,400 vertical feet.
For comparison, the OZ Trails Bike Park that’s getting so much ink (and millions of dollars of investment) will only offer about 300 vertical feet of descending. Mulberry Mountain already offers twice the vert and could extend to almost 5x the vertical drop.
What will Mulberry Mountain offer riders on opening day?
“With Mulberry Mountain, a big goal was bringing that classic downhill feel to Northwest Arkansas,” said Rogers. “We’re talking steeper grades averaging around 20%.”
“We just wanted to bring a real classic downhill feel, kind of like you find out West or especially, like out East,” he continued.
The Gravity Park is opening with three dedicated lines: one blue and two blacks. The total distance across these three trails is just two miles because they’re so freaking steep.
“The upper halves of both of the most difficult tracks, they’re 100% hand-cut, really low impact, and more like rake-and-ride style, something like you would see at, say, Windrock or Ride Kanuga,” said Rogers. “And then the lower sections were hybrid cut, machine built by myself as well. With the builds, like the whole idea is not necessarily a full departure from big, wide flow trails, like we do have sections that are more corporate bike park-style, but we really wanted [a] small scale, high rhythm, high dynamic range, trail experience with these trails.”
He went on to say that the average grades, near 20%, have a lot to do with creating the trail flavor they were looking for. Of course, the intermediate blue trail has a lower grade, but it still includes rake-and-ride sections with plenty of berms.
Of the two black-diamond trails, “one track is a lot faster […] and it’s got a couple bigger jumps on it.” According to Rogers, the largest jump on the mountain at the end of this primary race track measures 35 feet from lip to knuckle.
‘The opportunity [to build] the longest black jump line in Arkansas’
“We also have the opportunity out here to build virtually the longest black jump line in Arkansas, if we have the opportunity and funding to do that,” Rogers added. I pressed him to learn if they’d need Forest Service approval to do that, but he clarified that there’s currently no black jump line with even 600 vertical in the state. If they could extend onto Forest Service land, that would just be gravy.
While it’s still a bit unclear how the Trails at Mena will turn out and if they’ll build a longer jump line than this, the maps and drawings I’ve analyzed have shown much longer, drawn-out trails that provide more mileage but much less steepness than Mulberry already offers. There’s even been some speculation that the Trails at Mena might require climbs in the middle of the downhills, due to the terrain. But we won’t know for sure until more detailed trail maps are released.
Regardless, the trail builds on Mulberry Mountain are already impressive in their steepness, and the potential for future development here excites the imagination.
Hop on a UTV shuttle on opening weekend
Mulberry is leaning into their UTV background and will be hauling mountain bikers up the steep shuttle road using a full-size crew cab Polaris Ranger UTV. The vehicles can shuttle five riders and bikes per run, and Mulberry Mountain plans to operate on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, beginning the weekend of March 6.
While five riders per run isn’t a large capacity, Rogers assured me that it’s “very direct.” Riders are dropped at the singletrack at the top and picked up at the very bottom of the trail, and the ride up the road only takes four minutes.
A shuttle day pass costs $50 plus tax per person, and Mulberry is currently booking reservations online. The trails are free to pedal up without a shuttle, but “we highly encourage the shuttle. I think after a run or two pushing up that hill, I think they’re gonna want the shuttle pretty quick,” Patton said with a laugh.
Know about a new trail project we should cover? Whether you’re breaking ground on the next must-ride destination or putting the finishing touches on a neighborhood flow trail, we want to hear about it. Drop us a line at [email protected] with high-quality photos of your build, plus details like trail mileage, location, difficulty, and what makes it special. We’re always on the hunt for the next great trail story, and there’s a good chance your project could be featured in an upcoming article.
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