Soft opening held for Prairie Rock Trails Bike Park in Mason City

MASON CITY — A “soft opening” was held for the new Prairie Rock Trails Bike Park in Mason City on Wednesday afternoon.

The park that’s located at 1500 Elm Drive is a world-class facility adjacent to the Lime Creek Conservation Area, connecting riders to more than 20 miles of trails and 600 acres of scenic parkland.

The idea of the bike park came about from the North Iowa Human Powered Trails organization of outdoor enthusiasts. The organization’s Matt Curtis says the park will draw people of all ages into Mason City.  “This is absolutely amazing. To think what we have here today, I started riding out at Lime Creek in 1987 riding deer trails, and that was a long time ago. Didn’t know what mountain biking was at the time, we kind of invented it and made it our own, and it has progressed a long ways. To see these kids doing what they are doing on bikes right now is absolutely unreal. The size, the scale of this park is at a national level, and to have it here in Mason City, it’s going to bring people from everywhere.”

Curtis says the community support for the project has been unreal.   “Our city is absolutely amazing. Our community partners whether it’s Visit Mason City, Main Street Mason City, our city staff, our mayor, our city council, it just makes these projects fun for everybody, it makes it fun for the community, and it’s really bringing us together and it’s just feeding off of itself right now in Mason City.”

Curtis says the bike park has things for every level of mountain biker.  “It looks intimidating, it does I understand that, but we’ll have little kids that are literally three years old riding on some of these things. It’s progressive, so it’s designed to learn and become better and be for everybody. Our mayor, he’s been our mayor for a really long time, and to see him out here riding on this pump track and riding these jump lines, it’s so fun. It really speaks to what this is being built for, it’s built for everybody.”

While the soft opening took place yesterday afternoon to give the community a preview, a larger grand opening and dedication event is planned for next May.

The project was made possible through a $4.5 million Destination Iowa grant, which is a statewide initiative aimed at boosting tourism and enhancing quality of life.