Farside Bike Park — Attraction in Illinois

Fantastic Lift access Mountain Biking park with some serious features IN ILLINOIS!

You'd never expect something like this only 2.5 hours from Chicago, but here we are. The trails are in great shape, jump lips are pristine, everything is marked clearly and there are plenty of warning signs everywhere for surprise features. Took me over 3 hours to ride each trail for the first time, and you WILL want to do your favorite trails more than once. Hell, you can session the blue "jump line" all day long on its own. Its such a treat to have something like this without a crazy drive. I only wish it was open past 4 PM, especially on weekends, but if I have to wake up early to get there on opening hour; so be it.

Also the view from the top is...

A group of friends and I went to ride our bikes, and it took us just under 2 hours to get from Madison. However, to our disappointment, when we arrived, the park was closed. The reason given was some light rain in the early morning, but there was no ADVANCE notice anywhere about the closure. It was unprofessional of them not to provide any updates, especially considering that even smaller resorts have a constant update system. Eventually, they posted the information on Facebook. We inquired if there was a possibility of the park opening later, but the answer was a definite no. This is the first time I've experienced a bike park closing when the roads are dry, and it left many other bikers equally puzzled. It was...

Trails are awesome and professionally built perfect. Everything is laid out to be very fun and flowy without being overly intimidating. It’s definitely a good place for a wide variety of skill levels, but caters towards more towards the intermediate then it would people looking for huge gnarly hits or insane rock gardens. I really fully enjoy and respect what they’re doing there and we’re very lucky to have it in the Midwest! Chestnut is a beautiful resort with awesome views over the Mississippi. I highly recommend checking out the park...