Where is it?
Located about 50 minutes outside of Kamloops Sun Peaks was the perfect spot for my families first time at a bike park. Having never been to a lift assisted bike park I had no idea what to expect. Watch for the turn off on Highway 5 and head up to the village for a whole bunch of fun.
Where to stay?
While I had the benefit of staying and visiting with family in Kamloops there are plenty of great options.
Up in the Sun Peaks village there is spots to bring your camper and plenty of hotels. Depending on your lifestyle and budget there is zero reason to not get up here.
The village itself is full of restaurants, bike shops and plenty for the whole family to enjoy.
Even the non-bikers could have fun up here. It reminded me of a smaller version of Whistler. The vibe was very low key and it added to the charm of the place.
What to do there?
Ride bikes of course! I was lucky enough to get two trips up there during our stay in Kamloops.
For Beginners
Day one we had a group of 10 of use with 6 of them kids from ages 5-11. The progression park and carpet lift was perfect for the kids.
We had varying levels of experience with the kids and even some of the adults but were able to get a few hours in on the small lift. When riding with kids the progression park tickets are only $22 so its a very inexpensive way to get them out on the hill.
Sun Peaks trails are broken into two categories. Flow and Tech. They have a clear line of progression to help you decide which trails to start on and which ones to go to next. It really helps draw a clear skill line and helps everyone level up properly and safely.
Level up got the kids riding berms and eventually we moved them up to Pinball Wizard. They had a blast trying something new and not having to pedal uphill!
This same trail rating and progression system follows you through the entire park. This makes trail selection and progression quick and easy.
We fed the kids a tailgate lunch with our portable BBQ. We even had my daughters derailleur repaired during lunch and all it cost us was a couple hot dogs for the bike shop fellas! Overall it went great even with the young kids. I’d recommend it to anyone considering taking the kids riding.
For bike park veterans
If you have been to a bike park before chance are you are skipping the progression park and heading to the chair lift.
There are two chair options the Sundance and the Sunburst. There is plenty of trail on both but if you are brand new hit up the Sunburst Express and go for a run down Level Up.
This was day two for me as it ended up being just me and my brother in law. Dad mode for the night!
We had found our favorite trail in the park the day before so we headed straight up the Sundance Express. Quick run down a green to get the blood flowing then time to jump. Stella Blue was our favorite trail by far with plenty of flow and well made jumps to cruise over. We found on the lower half we would naturally cut over to Might as Well. The trail conditions on both these sections were perfect!
Each and every jump is flagged so you can really get the timing and flow of the trails out here. We ended up getting 5 runs in with our 3 hour window and had an absolute blast. Likely could have got 6 in but we had a flat on our final run.
My Norco Fluid FS1 was built for trails like these. The brother in law should be Rocky Mountain’s hardtail ambassador as he was cruising over all these on his Growler 40. Impressive. We ended our day with some village pizza and a couple cold ones.
Final thoughts.
If you are looking for a bike park with no lines that is family friendly and has a chill atmosphere Sun Peaks is the place. We can’t wait to head back next season and see how much more we have progressed. Hopefully I can get a few more little ones up the chair lift and spend even more time out there.
Let me know your favorite bike park and trail in the comments below. Check out my other posts about may favorite bike destinations.
