Bike Your Park Day: Not Just for National Parks

March 28, 2017

Does traveling to a national park feel like a barrier for you to participate in Bike Your Park Day?

Well, the good news is that you can ride ANY public lands on Bike Your Park Day. And no matter where you live, public lands may be closer than you think.

There are 59 national parks in the U.S., but national parks are just one type of public land. Here are some other possibilities that may be more accessible ...

And Before You Go ... Call the park or public land managers to check for:

• Road closures
• Permitting requirements
• And make sure the area allows bicycling. Some parks and public lands require cyclists to get a permit, especially if they are part of a group and particularly for groups charging a fee to participants.

Other National Park Service lands

• 413 total sites
• 80 million acres
• Includes: national heritage areas, national historical parks, memorials, national monuments, parkways, national historic trails, wild rivers, national historic sites, national seashores
• You can search for these on the interactive map at www.findyourpark.com/find/.
• You can also search by activity, like “Biking,” here.
• The International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) provides a list of national park units that allow mountain biking.

National Wildlife Refuges – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

• 562 Wildlife Refuges
• 150,000,000 acres
• Not all Wildlife Refuges are open to bicycling, so check before you go. You can search for these on the interactive map at www.findyourpark.com/find/ Click the checkbox “Other Public Lands.”

Recreation Areas

• Bureau of Land Management – many recreation areas, 258 million acres
• Bureau of Reclamation — 187 recreation areas, 6.5 million acres
• You can search for these on the interactive map at www.findyourpark.com/find/. Click the checkbox “Other Public Lands.” Also, check out the BLM’s top 20 mountain bike trails at www.blm.gov/mountainbike/.

State Parks – America’s State Parks

• 10,234 state parks
• 18 million acres
• America’s State Parks’ website has a search tool by state where visitors can learn about individual state parks and bicycling opportunities.

National Forests – Forest Service

• 154 national forests, 20 national grasslands
• 193 million acres
• The U. S. Forest Service website includes a mountain biking guide. Use the search tool on the Forest Service website to find nearby Forest Service lands. 

Urban Parks

• Many U.S. cities have several historic sites, monuments, and memorials within a few miles.
• Bikeabout provides routes, maps, public transportation resources, and lodging for a number of metropolitan areas in the U.S.
• This bike share map includes cities — and some national parks — with bike share programs.
• If you’re hoping to get out of the city on Bike Your Park Day, Amtrak’s routes travel through and near many parks and public lands — and now several lines allow you to bring your bicycle onboard.

These resources and others are available on the “Bike Your Park Day Ideas” page at BikeYourParkDay.org.

Start planning your Bike Your Park Day ride on September 30, 2017 and explore the undiscovered parks and public lands in your backyard. Bike Your Park Day registration is now open at BikeYourParkDay.org. You could win prizes, but even better, you’ll be helping us spread the love of bike travel. Thank you!

Photo 1 courtesy of Primal Wear | Photo 2 by Mina Thorgeson with Visit Mississippi | Photos 3 & 6 by Saara Snow | Photo 4 courtesy of Advocate Cycles | Photo 5 courtesy of Michelle Rooney | Photo 7 courtesy of Mary Gersema | Photo 8 courtesy of Blue Ridge Revolutions | Photo 9 by Tom Robertson

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