Bike Travel Weekend and Bike Your Park Day are events that anyone can participate in. Whether you’re a beginning or elite bicyclist, eight or 80 years old, or whether you live in an urban or rural area, get inspired with the resources below to start planning your ride.

Get Started

If you’re new to cycling, these resources can help you get started:

• Bike Touring 101.

• Bikeovernights.org is a resource with information about how to go on a bike overnight. The website also offers bike overnight examples and trip ideas.

• Bike overnight gear checklist.

• Don’t have bike-travel gear? Make these DIY panniers.

• Give your bike a pre-trip tune-up.

• Connect with a Bike Travel Weekend and Bike Your Park Day Advisor. Local experts in your area can provide recommendations for rides in your area.

• Have a question about bike travel or an Adventure Cycling route? Check out Adventure Cycling’s forums.

• If you’re new to bicycling and bike travel, check out Adventure Cycling’s how-to resources to get started.

Trip Planning

• Find a Bike Travel Weekend and Bike Your Park Day trip on the map and join an existing ride or get inspired to plan your own.

• Plan your route with Adventure Cycling's Route Network or U.S. Bicycle Route System.

• Comprehensive planning guide. 

• How to plan your own route.

• Use international bike route networks for bike trips outside of the U.S.

• Many states have bike travel routes including Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Oregon's 14 Scenic Bikeway routes. Contact your state’s department of transportation to see if similar resources in other states.

• If you prefer dirt over roads for your tour, check out these bikepacking routes. There are also lots of bikepacking routes in Oregon.

Find Your Park

Learn about the parks and public lands near you, as well as options for overnight stays and bicycle routes:

• Find National Parks and Public Lands:  Use the Find Your Park search tool and interactive map to search by park name, scroll through a list, or click on a map icon.

• Find State Parks: Click on a state to access each state park system’s website where you can learn about individual state parks and bicycling opportunities.

• Find a National Forest: This interactive map will help you discover the Forest Service lands in your backyard.

• Find a Wildlife Refuge along Adventure Cycling's Route Network.

• Find a rail trail through the Rails to Trails Conservancy that may connect you to nearby public lands.

Overnight Opportunities

Where you sleep can range from wild camping to a five-star hotel.

• Camp or rent a cabin on federal land.

• Reserve a campsite on Hipcamp.

• Stay at a friend’s house, camp in their backyard, or stay with a Warm Showers host and follow good guest etiquette.

Bring Your Family

• Every Kid in a Park: all fourth graders and their families can get a free pass to all national parks, lands, and waters.

• Discover the Forest: A kid-friendly site that helps families connect to the forests and public lands near them.

• Kids in Parks: The NPS offers many programs to engage kids and help them discover the outdoors.

• Introduce bike travel to your kids. Kids can ride their own bike from two wheelers, bikes with training wheels, to strider bikes. Little ones can sit in a bike trailer, bike seat, or tag-along bike.

Discover Urban Cycling Opportunities

You don’t have to drive hundreds of miles to start your Bike Travel Weekend or Bike Your Park Day ride from an urban area. Explore out your front door.

• Bikeabout provides bicycle tourism information for a list of major U.S. and Canadian cities. Find routes, maps, public transportation resources, lodging, and more.

• If you live in an urban area and don’t own a bike, use a Bike Share to explore urban parks by bike.

• Bikemunk also offers a comprehensive list of bike share companies by state.

Go Mountain Biking

Turn your mountain bike ride into an overnight adventure. Make sure that biking is allowed on the trails before you ride them.

• How to tour on a mountain bike.

• Bike overnight examples on a mountain bike.

• Get familiar with the International Mountain Biking Association's (IMBA) code of conduct, Rules of the Trail.

• The Bureau of Land Management has many amazing mountain biking trails. Find maps, site information, and more on this site.

• Search for mountain biking trails in any state and find maps, photos, and other resources on MTB Project.

• Find mountain bike trails, what their conditions are, photos and videos of trails, and track your rides with Trailforks.

• 12 trails for fall mountain biking

Bring Bikes Aboard

Put your bike on a bus, train, or boat and use public transportation to supplement your Bike Travel Weekend trip.

• Amtrak has many different services that allow people to bring bicycles on trains.

• Use these planning tools to help you figure out which bike services each Amtrak route and station provides.

Be A Park Steward

Give back to your parks and public lands by participating in a service event on September 26, 2020 for National Public Lands Day when you bike your park.  It's possible to participate in both Bike Your Park Day and National Public Lands Day!

Photo by Saara Snow.