DES MOINES, Iowa — The Fourmile Mountain Bike Park held a “soft opening” Saturday with a community ride through their new biking trails ahead of their 2025 grand opening.

The park sits on 50.25 acres of land in east Des Moines and Pleasant Hill along the Gay Lea Wilson Trail. Polk County Conservation and Central Iowa Trail Association (CITA) came together to design and undertake the project. The trails have been constructed and will be maintained by the CITA.

“It takes a community; we are 100 percent volunteer based so everything is built by volunteers and maintained by volunteers, so the trail users are the ones putting in the work,” said Dave McCloney the president of the Central Iowa Trail Association.

The project included construction of biking trials, more parking, and other amenities. Earth berms, flow trails, wood jumps and boardwalks, and stream crossings are featured throughout the trail. They finished construction on the trails this fall but the project will not be completely finished till the spring of 2025.

Saturday, several hundred people came to the park to enjoy the trails before they close for the winter season. The outcome was greater than they had anticipated but McCloney says he’s not surprised that the new trails are drawing in a crowd.

“We’ve talked in the past, and we heard it today, that people are going to travel to come here. So, when they come and travel, they are going to stay, so there is an economic impact and they will probably enjoy a nice meal afterwards, so it’s going to be a positive impact.”

The Fourmile trails are unique not only because they cater to mountain biking, but they are also designed with conservation in mind. The trails were built using green infrastructure concepts, including designs that address stormwater runoff from the proposed parking lot. The trails also connect and intertwine so that people can enjoy the Fourmile Creek Greenway or the adjacent Copper Creek Lake Park.

“It’s something unique to the Des Moines area, we don’t have a dedicated trail system like this in the Des Moines area,” said McCloney. “What we have is a more traditional hand cut mountain bike trail, and these are machine built. The trail isn’t just for mountain bikes there are some trails that will be great for families to come walk and hike and run.”

Mountain biking trails are not designed for the same style of smooth travel one would expect on a regular trial. They can be a bit more intense and because of this the equipment and safety standards may look a little different.

“You want to make sure your bike is in good working order; I wouldn’t recommend bringing my same bike that I would ride RAGBRAI on this trail. Make sure you have good safety equipment; a helmet is highly recommended for any of the mountain bike trails”

The trails will be open from sunrise to sunset from November to March permitting weather and safety conditions.