In the pastoral ranchland of the Hill Country of central Texas, things have a way of springing up seemingly overnight. Even when late springtime temps flirt with the triple digits, all it takes is one solid rain for the iconic Texas bluebonnet to bloom in profusion across every green hill. It’s both an unforgiving landscape and one in which things flourish quickly, including mountain biking.
Most of the Lone Star State’s mountain biking has flourished outside the traditional bounds of public recreation. Although it’s the largest state in the contiguous U.S., roughly 96% of the Texas landscape resides in ranchers’ and other individual landowners’ hands; in the absence of large swathes of federal land, city and county governments, as well as entities like the Lower Colorado River Authority, which manages the water supply and energy generation of the Lower Colorado River, account for most of the publicly held trail networks.
But much of the most highly prized gravity riding in Hill Country happens on private land. At private ranches, such as Reveille Peak Ranch (locally known as RPR), north of Marble Falls, and Flat Rock Ranch near Comfort, user fees fund trail crews for regular maintenance, and new trail construction, unfettered by government red tape, happens as quickly as crews can design and dig. Meanwhile, Austin-based Freeride 512 offers a unique membership system, with dues-paying riders allowed access to the club’s insurance in addition to several privately owned riding zones.
The private land-access environment has nourished dirt entrepreneurs. Just outside Marble Falls, 19-year-old Austin resident Rhett Jones founded Station Mountain Bike Park in 2023 as his senior-year “masterpiece” project for his high school. The largest bike park in Texas boasts the largest dirt jump in the state in addition to the aptly named 75 Hits jump line.