Waterfront Bike Park

The Port partnered with Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition to develop a waterfront bike park to improve public access to the water and allow the community to use vacant property on Bellingham's downtown waterfront which was going to take many, many years to redevelop. The bike park opened on September 2, 2019 and has become a much loved community treasure. Most of the bike park is located in an area which will eventually be developed into a permanent City park. The timeline for building this permanent park has not been established and depends on the pace of development, but will likely be at least 10 years. When the permanent park is developed, the City will work closely with the community to build public access features supported by the community.

Waterfront Bike Park

The waterfront bike park became increasingly popular during the Covid pandemic as a safe outdoor recreation opportunity. Although the bike park was already one of the largest (and raddest) in the Pacific Northwest, the Port and WMBC knew it could be much better. In August 2021, Port and WMBC staff headed up to nearby Galbraith mountain to collect surplus logs to build a skills area and started looking for more dirt to build beginner, intermediate and advanced jump lines.  

waterfront bike park - getting wood from Galbraith2
waterfront bike park - getting wood from Galbraith

In August 2021, the Port, WMBC and community volunteers gathered to build a biking skills area next to the new beer garden at Kulshan Trackside. 

Building the Waterfront Bike Park
waterfront bike park - building the skills area
Building the Waterfront Bike Park

With the cedar skills area nearly complete, it was time to work on the new jump lines.

Building the waterfront bike park

And now it was time to test out the new additions to the Port's waterfront bike park.

The bike park skills zone looked good so it was time to test out the new jump lines.

Building the Waterfront Bike Park

Oh yeah! But wait, the Port and WMBC are on a mission to build the raddest bike park in the Pacific Northwest. Wouldn't it be cool to have an advanced jump line around those tiled tanks? Let's do it!

The Port's waterfront bike park is getting better and better and we have exciting new additions in the works for our youngest riders so check back soon for updates. In the meantime, watch this video to learn more about how it all started and get ready to be Sidetracked at the raddest bike park in the Pacific Northwest.