If we here at Singletracks know anything, it’s mountain bike trails. We’ve given you the Top 10 Mountain Bike Destinations in North America, and even the Top 10 Mountain Bike Cities in North America. But there exists a class of destinations that isn’t quite developed enough in trail mileage or sheer grandness factor to make our top 10 destinations list. (That, and there are just so many great places to choose from!) However, many of these smaller destinations are still uber-popular, due to the really great riding they provide and their proximity to major metropolitan areas.

In this article, we’re rounding up 10 of the best weekend mountain bike getaways in the United States.

For our first criterion, these destinations don’t, for the most part, have that much singletrack mileage to offer. If you’re reasonably fit and you take a long 3-day weekend, you can probably explore most of these weekend destinations in their entirety. But despite the confined area, the riding in all of these places is renowned and raved about by the locals. Sure, you could go to a place like Moab or Whistler for a weekend, but you’d barely scratch the surface, and would ultimately do yourself and the wealth of amazing riding there a disservice. We’ve left such places out of the running

The second criterion is that the destination must be relatively close to a major metropolitan area. We s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d the distances on a few of these, but generally speaking we limited the driving distance calculations to cities of 100,000 or more within 6 or less hours one-way.

1. Brown County State Park, Nashville, Indiana

Visit here if you live in:

• Indianapolis, IN: 1-hour drive
• Louisville, KY: 1hr 20min
• Cincinnati, OH: 2hr
• Columbus, OH: 3hr 30min
• Chicago, IL: 4hr
• Nashville, TN: 4hr
• St. Louis, MO: 4hr 15min
• Detroit, MI: 5hr
• Cleveland, OH: 5hr 30min
• Pittsburgh, PA: 6hr

Brown County State Park in Indiana is home to over 30 miles of extremely well-built trails, ranging in difficulty from easy to advanced. This section of Indiana might surprise you, with quite a bit of elevation change thanks to the never ending up-down-up-down of the hills. In fact, one of the GPS tracks submitted to Singletracks for Brown County–totalling 31.3 miles in length–racks up 4,466+ feet of climbing! Spend the weekend here exploring these great trails, and enjoy convenient camping right in the same state park.

2. Mt. Ida, Arkansas

Visit here if you live in:

• Little Rock, AR: 1hr 40min
• Tulsa, OK: 3hr 40min
• Memphis, TN: 3hr 45min
• Oklahoma City, OK: 4hr 30mn
• Dallas, TX: 4hr 45min
• Kansas City, KS: 6hr
• Wichita, KS: 6hr
• Houston, TX: 6hr 45min
• Nashville, TN: 6hr 45min

Mt. Ida actually cracks the top 50 in our destinations ranking algorithm, claiming spot #38. This is one of the destinations that we didn’t expect to rank so highly, but with at least 9 trails totaling more than 264 miles of riding, labeling this as “just” a weekend destination is almost unfair.

However, this area, the Arkansas Ouachitas Ozarks, does pull in plenty of weekend (and longer) mountain biking tourism from all over the region. Must-ride trails include the Womble Trail, Ouachita Trail, and the Lovit Trail.

3. Roanoke, Virginia

Visit here if you live in:

• Raleigh / Durham, NC: 2hr 30min
• Charlotte, NC: 3hr
• Richmond, VA: 3hr
• Knoxville, TN: 3hr 45min
• Washington, DC: 4hr
• Norfolk / Chesapeake, VA: 4hr 15min
• Baltimore, MD: 4hr 30min
• Pittsburg, PA: 5hr 30min
• Philadelphia, PA: 5hr 30min

While Roanoke is a good-sized town all by itself, it’s also a great mountain getaway for folks from even larger cities on the Eastern Seaboard. It would take a dedicated rider to hit all of the trails that the greater Roanoke area has to offer, especially if limited to a 3-day weekend of riding. With the go-to trail system, Carvin’s Cove, claiming over 30 miles of singletrack, the must-ride Dragon’s Back measuring in at 12+ miles, and the in-town Mill Mountain Trails at 8+ miles (not to mention a bevy of other rides), your to-do list for this Appalachian mountain town is quite considerable

4. Coldwater Mountain, Anniston, Alabama

Visit here if you live in:

• Birmingham, AL: 1hr
• Atlanta, GA: 1hr 30min
• Chattanooga, TN: 2hr
• Montgomery, AL: 2hr
• Columbus, GA: 2hr 15min
• Augusta, GA: 3hr 30min
• Nashville, TN: 3hr 30min
• Jackson, MS: 4hr
• Mobile, AL: 4hr 15min
• Memphis, TN: 4hr 30min
• Charlotte, NC: 5hr
• Savannah, GA: 5hr
• Tallahassee, FL: 5hr
• New Orleans, LA: 5hr 45min

While some have claimed that Coldwater Mountain will become the next North American mountain bike mecca, even if they manage to flesh out the trail mileage to the full 60-80 miles that they hope it this trail system will embody, that’s still really only enough for a weekend of riding. But that will be one heck of a weekend!

Currently there are over 25 miles of trail completed at Coldwater, ranging in style from just classic singletrack, to flow trail, and even dedicated DH runs. The riding here is already incredibly diverse, and the massive flanks of this southern mountain offer astonishing geographic relief that I personally didn’t expect to find in Alabama. While I’d not recommend someone fly from Colorado to check out Coldwater, this trail system has already become a major Southeastern weekend draw, and its appeal will only continue to grow.

5. Santos, Ocala, Florida

Visit here if you live in:

• Orlando, FL: 1hr 15min
• Tampa, FL: 1hr 30min
• Jacksonville, FL: 2hr
• Tallahassee, FL: 2hr 45min
• Savannah, GA: 3hr 45min
• Miami, FL: 4hr 15min
• Augusta, GA: 4hr 45min
• Columbus, GA: 4hr 45min
• Atlanta, GA: 5hr
• Charleston, SC: 5hr 15min
• Mobile, AL: 6hr
• Montgomery, AL: 6hr

Santos now claims at least 60 miles of mountain bike trails over 85 miles of singletrack, all in one trail system. Add in a campground on-site, advanced trail features such as drops, jumps, wooden bridges, and a pumptrack, and you have a bona fide mountain bike destination in the heart of Florida. And while this destination is worthy of a drive, with 60ish miles of singletrack it’s pretty easy to see everything there is to see in a weekend of riding.

6. Big Bear Lake, California

Visit here if you live in:

• Los Angeles or Orange County, CA: 2hr
• San Diego, CA: 2hr 45min
• Las Vegas, NV: 3hr 30min
• Phoenix, AZ: 5hr 30min

Big Bear Lake in Southern California is surrounded by singletrack, but you can still hit all the key trails in a long weekend of riding. To start, grab your DH rig and hit the all-new bike park at Snow Summit. Next, hit Cougar Crest and other nearby trails in an epic loop similar to the one I did back in 2012. And finally, be sure to check out the new IMBA-built Skyline Trail… and tell me how it is!

While Big Bear is still warm and dry compared to most of the nation, thanks to a 6,759-foot base elevation the area provides a cool respite from the hot summers of the Desert Southwest, and the mountains rising up from there are a gorgeous change from much of the rest of So Cal.

7. Kingdom Trails, East Burke, Vermont

Visit here if you live in:

• Manchester, NH: 2hr
• Boston, MA: 3hr
• Albany, NY: 3hr 30min
• Syracuse, NY: 5hr 30min
• New York, NY: 6hr

Our Northeastern readers continue to rave and rave about how epic the Kingdom Trails in Vermont are. And as a result, I so want to go and visit! 110+ miles all contained in one trail system sounds like an epic experience to me! However, with very little other riding in the East Burke area according to the Singletracks database, Kingdom Trails is really a weekend destination. If you have 3 days to ride and are in decent shape, you can knock out 100 miles of trail, no problem. And while it might not be worthy of a full week of riding on its own, Kingdom Trails would be a great stop on a Northeastern road trip, a great weekend getaway from the city, or a great location as a base for a wider-reaching Vermont trip.

All of that said, don’t take this as a knock against this trail system. Because the Kingdom still reigns supreme, and is a must-ride for anyone living in or visiting the Northeastern United States!

8. Oakridge, Oregon

Visit here if you live in:

• Eugene, OR: 45min
• Portland, OR: 2hr 30min
• Seattle, WA: 5hr

I’ll admit: Oakridge could easily take up a full week of your riding time… or more. Out of all the destinations on this list, this is the one that could most easily grace any destination list with any parameters. That said, there’s just not much to do in the town of Oakridge… so unless you plan to spend 16 hours per day on your bike and the other 8 sleeping, you could get bored if you’re here for a week or two. But turn it into a long 3-day weekend? Yeah, that’s the perfect escape from the city, and you can hit some of the best-known Oakridge trails in that time frame.

Without a doubt, begin your weekend by shuttling the Alpine Trail. There are different variations of this route, so you could even shuttle it three days in a row and be totally happy. But there’s so much more to Oakridge than just Alpine. Follow up Alpine Trail with a several of Oakridge’s multitude of great options: Waldo Lake, Hardesty Mountain, Middle Fork Trail, Larison Rock… and so much more.

Fair warning: if you do take a weekend trip here, you may find yourself coming back again and again… and again.

9. Buffalo Creek, Pine, Colorado

Visit here if you live in:

• Denver, CO: 1hr
• Colorado Springs, CO: 1hr 30min
• Fort Collins, CO: 2hr
• Pueblo, CO: 2hr
• Amarillo, TX: 6hr 30min

With about 30 miles of trails in the main Buffalo Creek trail system, ranging from flowy to balls-to-the-wall technical, there’s a lot to explore and experience. Add in the epic sections of the Colorado Trail running through the area as well, and there’s plenty of riding to keep you busy! Round out the package with a campground bordered on the backside by the CO Trail and on the frontside by the main trail system, and you have the perfect Colorado Front Range weekend getaway! However, unlike almost every other place in Colorado, if you spend more than three or four days here you’ll be itching to ride somewhere else.

But those three or four days will be an absolute riot!

10. Copper Harbor, Michigan

Visit here if you live in:

• Green Bay, WI: 4hr 30min
• Duluth, MN: 5hr
• Madison, WI: 6hr 15min
• Milwaukee, WI: 6hr 15min
• Minneapolis/Saint Paul, MN: 7hr
• Chicago, IL: 8hr

Granted, Copper Harbor is a long way from everything… but with such stellar mountain biking and creative trail building, this location needs to be recognized! Unfortunately, if you want to make a week of it, you won’t be able to hangout solely in Copper Harbor: there’s just not enough trail. Instead, you’ll need to add in Houghton and Marquette to truly do the Upper Peninsula justice.

But a long weekend of rippin’ ridin’ in the Northwoods? Yup, Copper Harbor has you covered!

Your Turn: Know of a great weekend mountain bike getaway that we didn’t have space to mention in this article? Tell everyone about it in the comments section below!