Knox Mountain park, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, Okanagan Valley

Ride with the Kelowna Locals at Knox Mountain

There aren't many cities with world-class biking trails right on the edge of town, but Kelowna is one of the select few!

Mountain Biking Moderate, Difficult

Description

Knox Mountain lies just to the north of Kelowna city centre and is a popular spot with local riders, as well as a justly famous viewpoint for hikers and tourists. It's simple to climb the peak because a tarmac road (Knox Mountain Drive) leads all the way from the edge of Kelowna city to the summit. The road is closed to cars so Knox Mountain Drive is not only an easy way to climb its eponymous peak, but also a quiet one.

None of these rides involve much more than 300 vertical metres of ascent so they are ideal for after work laps, or quick hits for when you pull into town with a few hours of daylight left. All of the rides use Knox Mountain Drive to do most of the ascent, so you don't need to give the uphill much thought and can focus on enjoying the trails.

The most popular route here is the Shale Trail - the Knox Mountain classic and one which gives you an excuse to visit the peak's famous lookout. If you've never visited Kelowna before, Shale Trail is a great place to start exploring because it allows you to see plenty of Knox Mountain, and to get high enough above Kelowna to understand the city's geography. Shale Trail also features the toughest technical riding of all these 3 routes, with "Balsamroot, Simpson and Shale" the next toughest and "Kathleen Lake and Glenmore Ridge" the easiest ride in here. None of the rides in here are really challenging though - they're smile-inducing fun lines, and they all have a collection of great breweries at the bottom!