Behold the World's First Underground Bike Park

Kim Cross reports: "Seventy-five feet under the Louisville Zoo, in a labyrinth of Kentucky limestone mined into Swiss cheese, a few million pounds of soil have been sculpted into the trails, berms, and jumps at Mega Cavern, the world’s first underground bike park. When it opens to the public in February, the park will have more than five miles of interconnected trails that range from flowing singletrack to dirt jumps to technical lines with three-foot drops. And that’s just the first of three phases to roll out this winter."

According to the article, Mega Cavern is only the latest example of a trend that began beneath an elevated portion of the I-5 freeway in Seattle at a park known as the Colonnade. In fact, "[there] are now some 100 urban bike parks across the country, everywhere from Boulder, Colorado, to Chicago. And the most recent trend is to move them indoors."

The article includes an interview with Mega Cavern designer Joe Prisel, "one of the country’s most sought-after bike-park builders and architects."