Boyne Highlands

A good taste of what a proper downhill trail system is. The lift is very slow, and they only hook one bike to every other chair so 3 people would need to wait for a total of 6 chairs to get all their bikes up. It's also very sandy in places, which makes it difficult to keep traction, especially at speed.

That being said, I had a very fun day at Boyne. The blue and black diamond trails are well made, with massive features that you can ride around if you don't feel confident in surviving a ride off them. Towards the end of the day I'd had enough going OTB and tried the XC trails to the right of the chairlift. They were very nice, with lots of variation in where the trail was and the features it had, allowing you to pound out some miles without worrying about crashing. All in all definitely a good value for the $22 lift ticket, and I will be heading back.

A great surprise to find well crafted trails and cool features

Some of the trails were a blast and had a buch of sweet features, but others were just poorly maintained sand pits where you could keep no speed or control. The lift was also excruciatingly slow ( it took 14 minutes to get to the top and 3 min to get down). Would be three stars if it werent for Holy Diver and Dirt Merchant.

Rode here Memorial Day weekend, 2019. Nice fast fun. Short lift and short runs, so it doesn't take a lot of time to go up and down. I will say, though, the lift is kinda slow. ~10-13 minutes a trip up. Takes less time to get back down on the trails. This sin't Colorado, so don't expect those kinds of runs here. No manicured flow either. Expect rough, semi techy, sandy and tight down hill. It's fun. A hand full of man made features here and there. As for difficulty ratings, a bit on the conservative side. If you've done any medium (blue) down hill stuff, you can probably do the double black diamonds here. There are bypasses for the larger man made drop features. As others have said, there are also XC trails to ride, so you don't have to do down hill all the time. You use the lift to reach those XC trails as well. There's a place for food and drink at the bottom. They do rent bikes as well, although their current enduro offering (Giant Reign) wasn't overly impressive. But that's just my personal opinion.

In short, a fun place to spend time riding. I'd go again if I'm in the area.

Rode (multiple times) Dirt Sample, The Trooper, Grandma's House, Holy Diver, North Spine, Bad Jackson, Shock, After Shock, Dirt Reynolds, Risky Business, Gnarnia.

Best full dh in lower mi lots of cool jumps and wood features great place for anyone who loves jumps and dh

Awesome DH fun and great XC trails in a beautiful part of Michigan!

This place is a ton of fun to ride. Features and lines are well thought out. I could have easily spent all day here. Mortician and Shock were fun rides and definitely made with expert riders in mind. Wall rides, drops and jumps make it a wild ride. When getting into the singletrack the roots and narrow trail make navigating a good challenge. I rode the downhill park area only. I rode it on my all mountain bike with 150mm travel though I would recommend an enduro. The only drawback I can say is that it was exceptionally dry and there were some really sandy areas that made going into some of the big jumps a little sketchy. Great fun to be had here and I will be back!

I ride here all the time at least twice a week. If you are looking for buff "dumb downed" single track this is not your place. Real mountain biking here, you might hit a root or a rock, oh no! The signage has gotten much better but there is enough trail off the property to get a little lost.

This review is for the DH bike park only.

Boyne's Bike Park consists of 13 marked trails with heavy-metal themed names, and a small skills park located behind the tennis courts. Lift service Wednesday through Sunday until Labor Day for about $20/day.

More difficult than most trail systems, state parks, etc. As a whole, the freeride park at Boyne is geared more towards more advanced riders. I did not ride every trail, and some are easier than others, but it's not something I would recommend for novice riders. For those, Boyne offers a number of XC trails which would be a better option.

The course is fast throughout, from the top and in to the singletrack you're hauling ass. Be cautious on the two-track where it can be pretty sandy, but otherwise the trails were relatively firm. Whoops and bumps and roots and rock gardens and banked switchbacks, as well as jumps, bridges, and drops up to about 15'.

There were definitely some trails that I couldn't ride on hardtail even with an all-mountain geo and 140mm travel, part of that is probably my lack of experience with DH courses but there are gnarly-steep switchbacks on Trooper that I had to dismount for.

I didn't end up riding all of the trails but from what I did ride, Kylesa/Mortician was a great jam if you wanted to hit some features, or if you were after pure single-track then Opeth-Mayhem-Atershock was killer, with the longer Isis also in contention.

Overall: The trails really were a lot of fun and it's a great weekend getaway with some friends -- I'll definitely be back! Great variety of terrain from technical single-track to park/features and drops.

TONS of fun! Some there to challenge everybody. One of the best places to ride in the L.P.

Wicked fun! Both the X-country and the downhill. X-country is very well marked and has a ton of variety for both weekend warriors and hardcore mountain bikers. Downhill is where it's at. Awesome fun and super fast. Beware or sand tho. Wear your safety equipment if you do the downhill.

A ski hill ride is a different sort of a ride. There is no 'uphill trail'. Getting to the top requires uphill road riding off property. Or, a lift ticket? I've not seen the chairs run in the summer. The singletrack is well made, pretty fast with some narrow 15"-18" wood bridges within the twisty descending trail with a fair drop if you don't stay on the bridge. There are some really fun half-pipe switchback sections that are twice as long and steep as the one at Pontiac Lake. The road to the top is 3 to 4 miles with about 8 miles of singletrack. The North Country trail, East of Boyne Highlands by only a few miles, can extend your ride. It is less technical, but it's still mountain biking ... not just dirt path riding. It does take 2 to 3 road miles to get from one to the other.* Review edited 6/4/2012