Check out miles of improved trails and newly cut downhill trails. Crystal Mountain has 21 miles of beginner, intermediate and advanced on-site mountain bike trails that connect to the Betsie River Pathway, Home of the fall Peak2Peak Mountain bike race and the 22-mile Betsie Valley Rail-Trail.
Crystal Mountain also now has NEW technical downhill trails. There are currently 5 different runs that go from Beginner to Advanced with most of it being Intermediate. The downhill trails are a rowdy combination of technical singletrack, ladder bridges, rock gardens and fast open ski hill sections. All downhill trails are trail bike friendly with easy well marked bypasses. Lift access available daily Noon till 8pm during peak season. Must be 12 years old and purchase a lift ticket to ride the downhill trails
Crystal Mountain also offers bike and equipment rentals, weekly tours, events and mountain bike skills lessons taught by our inhouse IMBA Level II Certified Bike Specialist.
Check the website or call for a current list of events and schedule.
The Bike Park trails are a rowdy combination of wide machine built flow trail, progressive jump lines, ladder bridges, rock gardens and fast open ski hill sections. All Bike Park trails are trail bike friendly with easy well marked bypasses. Lift access available generally Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays during peak season, please see the Crystal Mountain website for updated lift hours <a href="https://www.crystalmountain.com/activities/biking/">https://www.crystalmountain.com/activities/biking/</a> Crystal Mountain also offers bike and equipment rentals, weekly tours, events and mountain bike skills lessons Check the website or call for a current list of events and schedule.
These trails are better than ever thanks to the resort having a dedicated trail crew this summer, especially the downhill runs. The signage at the top of the mountain is very good and there are now 6 downhill trails, including machine cut and challenging black diamond options. As of today the chairlift is not carrying bikes but they will get that working again in autumn 2021.
| ThankVery fun bike park that was well maintained. While the black diamond trails were definitely not true black diamond, they were the most challenging in the park. This is a great park for riders from beginner to expert. I will be back
| ThankThis is for the downhill section of the mountain only. Not a whole lot here and gets pretty repetitive after a couple hours. Employees aren't familiar with the trails. Very short runs. On the other hand if you are just learning freeride it's not a bad place to learn off some very small features. The trails were pretty sandy. The lift crawls up the hill. Thanks goodness it's not a big hill. Several of the features were off line which didn't make much sense. Didn't seem like a whole lot of work was put into them. Not bad but not great. Didn't think it was worth $20 though.
| ThankA nice xc route in addition to all the DH. The pineapple/crushed pineapple, aspen, and screaming eagle together make for a pretty good route, though it's not a super well-desigend mtb course per se. It's still fun to ride and will give a good workout.
| ThankCrystal Mountain's trails include "miles of beginner, intermediate, and advanced on-site mountain bike trails that connect to the Betsie River Pathway, 22-mile Betsie Valley Trail, North Country Trail, and Arcadia Dunes", as well as a handful of downhill, lift-served trails on part of the ski area. This review is only for the downhill trails.
Aside from being a little sandy in some spots the trails seemed well-maintained. Features, obstacles and intersections/merges were well-marked, and the occasional low-hanging branch was painted for visibility.
There were a few spots where the trails' sandiness made me exercise a bit more caution. I'm not an avid DH rider, and although I've been riding singletrack for about 20 years, I'm still hesitant to take on drops over obstacles/features, especially when the landing looks like a sand trap.
As for technical difficulty, riding a hardtail I didn't have any trouble with most of the DH -- it's definitely not as advanced terrain as you will might find at Boyne Highlands for example, and with only 5 or 6 trails to choose from you might get a little bored if you're planning on an extended ride session, but they said the trails have been very popular so hopefully they will continue to enhance them and add more in the future.
Overall: if you're in the area and looking for something fun to do it is worth the trip but until they add some more DH trails I wouldn't go out of my way to ride them. If you've never really ridden DH before, the trails at Crystal would be a good place to get started -- and of course you can always ride the XC trails before or afterwards for a bit more variety in the ride.
| ThankCurrently XC trails are in great shape, especially with the recent rain and lots of riders out, watch out for sandy sections.
| ThankDH trails are packed and fast, Once again sand can become an issue when its dry