Until Oct. 24, where did an Eden Prairie kid on a mountain bike go to ride dirt? Usually to another city. Amy Markle, the city's parks and recreation director, told the Sun Sailor that residents who mountain bike were "having to drive to a lot of the adjacent communities to access it." She said the city "wanted to help remove that barrier."
Removing that barrier is now 15 acres of trail at Cedar Hills Park, 9580 Eden Prairie Road, which opened that Saturday. Most of the attention so far has gone to the jumps and drops. Most of the ground went somewhere else. The park was planned around one large loop for novices, and that is what makes it worth knowing about if you have riders at home who are just starting out.
A Little-Known Park on an Old Ski Hill
Cedar Hills Park sits along Eden Prairie Road south of Pioneer Trail. Eden Prairie Local News called it "a little-known city park" when the project got its green light this spring. The hills are the reason it works. Decades ago this part of southwestern Eden Prairie held the Cedar Hills Golf Course, and in winter a ski hill, according to 2025 reporting from the same outlet.
Things moved quickly once the plan was set. On April 21, 2026, the City Council gave Pathfinder Trail Building the construction contract for $420,800. The one other bid came in at $443,129.52. The money came from the city's Park Improvement Fund, which collects fees developers pay toward new parks and recreation amenities. A small resident committee, made up of mountain bike riders and others who had asked about the project, worked on the design with a professional designer. The Sun Sailor reported that one local family helped revise parts of the plan to make it more accessible for people with disabilities.
Most of the Park Is the Easy Part
That committee work shows in the layout. In April, Markle described one large all-access loop for novices, with shorter intermediate and advanced trails nearby. "But the vast majority of the loop area will be really for all ages, all abilities," she told Eden Prairie Local News. At the design stage, the Sun Sailor reported that every trail on the west side of the park was planned as a beginner route.
The trailhead signs use four difficulty levels, and the city's own definitions are more useful than a color code:
- Adaptive: Wide, obstacle-free trails
- Easy: Gentle hills, small obstacles and loose terrain
- Intermediate: Varied terrain and steep slopes
- Advanced: Advanced riding skills required for natural and constructed features
The bike playground map shows both one-way and two-way Easy/Adaptive routes, a bike repair station, a drinking fountain, and a nature trail along Riley Creek that is closed to bikes. The skills park map names its sections North Star, Loon Landing, The Tree Fort, Monarch Flight, Sota Connector and Prairie Swirl.
Nervous riders should know one design rule Markle explained before construction: "where there's a feature, there's also an area to go around." If a rider doesn't want to cross a bridge, rock or log, they can take the bypass. A child can ride the same loop as an older sibling without being pushed onto a feature they aren't ready for.
The Hub Built Around One Blue Spruce
The section that drew the crowds is smaller and steeper. On Oct. 16, a week before opening, the YouTube channel Rob On Bikes posted an early look made with Matt, who works for Pathfinder. The video describes a gravity hub with "jumps, berms, drops, wooden features, and rocky technical features," all starting from a hub "built around a singular blue spruce." It covers four lines:
- A blue jump line
- A blue drop line
- A black jump line
- A black technical line
Blue and black mean intermediate and expert. All four lines come off the same hub, so a family with a teenager on the jump lines and a younger child on the easy loop is riding one park, and nobody has to drive to a second trail system to fit in both.
Before You Load the Bikes
The opening celebration on Oct. 24 had music, giveaways, a ribbon-cutting at the main parking lot trailhead, and food from Captain Taco and North Star Tavern. Visitors were asked to park at Flying Cloud Fields and take a free shuttle. Parking still shapes a normal visit now that the shuttle is gone. The city lists limited parking at the main entrance and overflow parking about a mile north at the Flying Cloud Fields west entrance, 9311 Mitchell Road.
The city's equipment rules are short:
| Allowed | Prohibited |
|---|---|
| E-bikes with functional pedals | ATVs and other motorized vehicles |
| Motorized ADA mobility devices | Remote-controlled vehicles |
| Electric scooters | |
| E-motos |
Every rider must wear a helmet. Singletrack is one-way to limit erosion, so follow the directional arrows. On multi-use trails, riders announce themselves when approaching others, and bikers yield to faster bikers. The dog stays home. Pets are not allowed on the multi-use trails, except service animals. The park directory lists a basketball court and playground equipment, which helps if a younger sibling tags along.
In the First Season, the Ground Sets the Schedule
The park was supposed to open sooner. The construction contract set an Oct. 1, 2026 completion date, and the Sun Sailor's design-stage story expected a September ribbon-cutting. Instead it opened in late October, so its first weeks are Minnesota late fall.
The city asks riders to "ride dirt, not mud," to stay off the trails when they're wet, and to expect closures during long wet stretches. New trail has had little time to settle, and ruts from one soggy afternoon stay all season. The project was meant in part to protect Eden Prairie's conservation areas from the ruts and erosion off-road riding causes. So the best days to ride this fall are dry ones, and the date on the calendar matters less.
The city has not published a winter plan for Cedar Hills, so treat fat biking and grooming as open questions. One detail is suggestive. The multi-use rules say "hikers and snowshoers yield to bikers." For regional context, Three Rivers Park District says "almost all of the local mountain bike trails stay open in the winter as long as the ground is frozen and the temperature is below freezing." Its mountain biking page advises lower tire pressure in winter and snowshoes for anyone hiking singletrack. That describes how Three Rivers runs its own trails. It is not Eden Prairie policy. The city's bike park page is the one to check before you go.
Making a Longer Ride of It
The park is close enough to Eden Prairie's other trails that a stronger rider can add miles on a dry day. The city's trails page lists two that pair well:
- Purgatory Creek loop: 2.4 miles, enough for a cooldown spin with younger riders.
- Minnesota River Bluffs Regional Trail: 6.8 miles of crushed limestone through Eden Prairie, good for biking, walking or running.
Neither one has jumps. Both are built for the same goal Markle described, which is giving Eden Prairie riders a "nature fix" without leaving town.
People often ask how a new amenity like Cedar Hills will affect the homes around it, and those conversations go better with someone who has watched Eden Prairie parks change over the years. If you'd like to talk through what's happening near your own street, Renée Wilson is glad to meet for a consultation or put together a personal home valuation.
