Sky Tavern built a first-class bike park near Reno, NV, in less than 4 years

*Sky Tavern has long been a winter sports mecca for Reno, Nevada-area residents. Now it has become a summer riding destination as well. Photo courtesy of Sky Tavern.*

Ski resorts are scrambling to adapt as shorter, more unpredictable winters shrink their operating seasons and leave chairlifts idle for months at a time. The solution? Mountain bike trails. By transforming ski hills into summer riding destinations, resorts can generate year-round revenue while keeping their facilities in use long after the snow melts.

Unfortunately, most bike parks take several years to develop, requiring ample time to plan, permit, and build. Many are built in phases, taking upwards of a decade to complete.

That’s why it was amazing to discover that Sky Tavern, which has long been a winter recreation destination for those near Lake Tahoe and Reno, has built a top-tier bike park in less than four years. To learn how it accomplished this feat, Singletracks spoke with Rick Reed, the Marketing Director and Bike Park Operations Manager for Sky Tavern, and Steve Wentz, a Partner with Momentum Trail Concepts.

*Sky Tavern has a long history of providing winter sports recreation to all, regardless of income. Photo courtesy of Sky Tavern.*

Sky Tavern has long made winter sports accessible to everyone, but offered nothing during the summer

For over 75 years, Sky Tavern (a non-profit sports education facility) has been providing ski lessons to youth regardless of their income. It has taught over 125,000 youth to ski under the guidance of adult volunteers.

The program, which relies primarily on donations for funding, offers scholarships so that everyone has access to winter recreation regardless of their income. However, until recently, Sky Tavern had no summer programming and was totally vacant once ski season ended.

Some locals had built a few rogue trails on the property, which is owned by the City of Reno, but there were no official mountain bike trails, Reed told Singletracks.

*Reed has created special events during the summer months to help bring people into the bike park. Photo courtesy of Sky Tavern.*

A new chairman with a passion for mountain biking pushed for trails at the property

When Yale Spina became the chairman of the board of directors, he brought with him a love of mountain biking and a determination to bring the sport to Sky Tavern. That’s when Reed was hired to make Spina’s vision become a reality.

Reed has a passion for building trails for communities and a wealth of experience in the bike and outdoor industry, including work at FiveTen and contributions to another major mountain biking website. Sky Tavern already had an adaptive trail and a flow trail when he arrived, but nothing else.

Bringing in Wentz to build more trails and working on ways to bring the community to the park changed that. Reed started a bike skills program that primarily focused on youth and female riders. He also initiated the May Day and Party in the Sky events at the park, which draw big crowds at the beginning and end of every riding season.

*The bike park was created to be a place where riders of all ages and abilities could come and have fun. Photo courtesy of Sky Tavern.*

The vision was to create a place where the community could come and hang out

One key advantage for Sky Tavern’s expansion is its land arrangement. “The City of Reno owns the land, and we have a long-term lease,” Reed explained. Being on this neutral public land has helped facilitate development. The property has 700 vertical feet of elevation and encompasses 143 acres. That makes it a great location for an integrated trail system suitable for every type of rider.

There is no shortage of support from the community, Reed said. “We live in an area that embraces outdoor recreation. We have seen tremendous growth in the last five years. There is a lot of demand for it, and people are willing to support us.”

It’s the community support that allowed Sky Tavern to build approximately 10 miles of trails, a pump track, a Strider bike track, a youth skills zone, and a progression skills zone in less than four years. Thanks to funds raised through donations and admission fees at special events, Sky Tavern was able to allocate several hundred thousand dollars over the past few years to building trails.

*Wentz, along with some help from his partner Matt Thompson, built trails that are both fun and sustainable, blending in seamlessly with the landscape despite being machine-built. Photo: Steve Wentz.*

The trails are known for their quality and sustainability

Reed brought in Wentz and Momentum Trail Concepts to build the trails. “Not only is he an incredible builder, but he builds trails with sustainability in mind,” said Reed. That was important to Reed because Sky Tavern is dependent on volunteers for trail maintenance. Wentz had a philosophy of “build trails once and build them right.”

Wentz, along with his partner Matt Thompson, had already built a couple of proof-of-concept trails at Sky Tavern before Reed’s arrival, including the High Five Trail in 2020, a two-mile downhill flow trail created for adaptive riders. “When I made the trail, they asked what was next,” said Wentz. “I then started building one trail after another.”

The hill’s decomposing granite makes it highly susceptible to erosion, which created uncertainty about whether any trails built there would last. Without confidence in the trails’ longevity, there was little incentive to develop a comprehensive master plan or secure long-term funding.

Ultimately, Wentz showed he could build sustainable trails on the property that require little to no maintenance. He used a larger excavator with a five-foot track width to build the trails, using its heavier weight to help compact the soil. He also built the trails in a way that eliminated the need for drains.

Wentz’s work resulted in ten trails ranging from green to double black diamond. Four trails—High Five, Rick Sutherland, Easy Up, and Alleygator—feature adaptive-friendly options. Though not originally designed as an integrated system, the trails interconnect naturally, allowing riders to create their own routes from summit to base.

*There’s no doubt Sky Tavern will only gain in popularity as more people discover the quality and variety of its trails. Photo courtesy of Sky Tavern.*

Sky Tavern’s Bike Park has a bright future ahead of it

The park will start offering a shuttle service in 2026. “The shuttle will take us to the next level,” said Reed. The park had the full support of the U.S. Forest Service, which fast-tracked the approval of the required permit, he said. The park needed a permit because the shuttle traverses Forest Service property to reach the top of the bike park.

Wentz hopes to continue expanding the trail system. “I want to piece together stuff to help people build up to the next level. I believe in a spectrum of blues and blacks, from light to medium to dark,” he said. He also plans to add more features to certain trails to help riders develop faster decision-making skills.

Whatever the future holds, Reed and Wentz’s efforts have made Sky Tavern a first-class bike park in a short span of time. The quality and variety of its trails rival some major parks, while providing the bike park experience to the community for free, asking only for donations.