Bike Parks: I-5 Colonnade and Duthie Hill, Seattle, WA

The I-5 Colonnade bike park in Seattle was the first of a new breed of urban mountain bike skills parks that has been gaining traction across the nation. In urban areas where space can be hard to come by, the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance was able to get permission to build a skills park under one of the I-5 freeway overpasses. This 2-acre park boasts a number of XC-style trails along with progressive jump lines, technical features, and other skill-building elements. Since it is built under an overpass, “you can ride there all year even when it’s dumping out,” said Glenn Glover, Executive Director of the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance (EMBA). The lack of rain posed a serious challenge to the trail construction, which EMBA overcame by hauling in tons of rock, creating some seriously challenging trails in a convenient urban location.

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