Biking in Bentonville: One Writer Takes to the Trails of Northwest Arkansas
Thrill seekers and easy riders alike find plenty to love on the never-ending bike trails of the Ozarks
August 5, 2025
“The guy with the hardest job in Bentonville is the one who makes these maps,” says the veteran mountain biker, coach, and guide Sam Pearson with a laugh, as he wheels to a stop in front of a trailhead sign with endless lines and loops denoting biking trails. “By the time a new map comes out, we’ve built more trails and it’s already changed.”
In Northwest Arkansas, a region anchored by the metropolitan hubs of Bella Vista, Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, and Fayetteville, to say biking is having a moment would be quite the understatement. With Bentonville as the focal point, getting around on two wheels—and partaking in the thriving art scene—is a way of life here. Over the past two decades, Tom and Steuart Walton, grandsons of Walmart founder Sam Walton, have championed the mountain biking cause, funneling some $74 million through the Walton Family Foundation into the creation of 163 miles of bike routes, collectively called Oz Trails.
“People refer to Bentonville as the Disneyland of mountain biking,” says Nickel Potter of Phat Tire Bike Shop, the city’s first such enterprise, which opened in 2007 and today boasts fourteen locations. “The infrastructure is just over-the-top cool.” Undulating paths flow into ramps, gap jumps, ladder bridges, and boardwalks that weave through the Ozark Mountains—a setting anointed with near-perfect biking conditions. The ancient, eroded formation offers steep hills without the grueling elevation change of, say, the Rockies; the ground is naturally gravelly, meaning rain rarely closes trails; and relatively mild weather means year-round adventure potential.
