Sioux City Parks and Recreation dedicated its new Cone Park mountain bike trails this weekend. Spokesman John Byrnes says the trails are designed for riders of any age.
“Up in the hills there’s ten and a half miles of just soft surface trails, they’re built like a ski hill, so we’ve got the green, the bunny slope right? If you can just pedal a bike you can try mountain biking,” he says. He says the Cone Park bike trails set Sioux City apart from anything else that’s available.
“I mean, there’s nothing like this between basically us, Colorado, Michigan and Bentonville, Arkansas. I mean, this is truly one of a kind for what’s in Iowa and in the Midwest region,” Byrnes says. “In fact, I’m already getting calls. I’ve already toured our development multiple times with Omaha, Sioux Falls, other communities that have seen what we have and they go ‘oh my gosh, we’re behind we need to get this’.” The city held a Trails Fest this weekend to introduce the new park.
“We’re gonna be open every day throughout the entire summer, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 a-m to 6:30p-m. People can rent bikes ahead of time so they know their bike is reserved. They’ll be able to use our carpet lift during that period of time, they’ll be able to cool off in the lodge and get the concession stand,” he says.
Cone park already had splash pads for kids and walking trails. It also has winter tubing and the mountain bike trails are expected to bring in many more people to the area.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)