DATE: April 2, 2026
HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, Arkansas — Hot Springs’ Northwoods/Cedar Glades Trail System has been voted the best in Arkansas for the sixth time by mountain bikers participating in Arkansas Outdoors Magazine’s annual competition.
Joe Jacobs of Arkansas Outdoors reported today (April 2) that “The Mountain biking community of Arkansas has rendered the verdict: Hot Springs’ Northwoods/Cedar Glades Trail System is, again, the best trail system in the state.”
Jacobs said Northwoods/Cedar Glades was ranked No. 1 among the 32 trail systems competing in the annual “March Madness Champion” voting. No. 2 was Mount Nebo State Park (Dardanelle); No. 3 was Lakewoods Trails at Monticello; No. 4 went to Devil’s Den State Park near Fayetteville.
He said the Hot Springs trail system “claimed the championship over a formidable field of 32 trail systems spanning every corner of the Natural State.”
“To understand what Northwoods’ 2026 championship means,” he said, “you have to understand what came before. This is not a system that stumbled into recognition. Arkansas Outdoors readers have now voted Northwoods the top mountain biking trail system six times.”
“Thank you to Arkansas Outside for continuing to champion the outdoors in the Natural State, to everyone that participated in the MTB Trail March Madness Fun, and to those who showed us the love,” said Traci Berry, Visit Hot Springs’ trail coordinator.
“I can’t overstate the role our maintenance staff has played in our winning this competition six out of the seven times it has been conducted,” Berry said. “I believe 100 percent that this plays a major role in setting us apart from some of the other popular trail systems. Visit Hot Springs struck gold when it had the foresight to commit to investing in a full-time staff with the main purpose of maintaining the trails.
“Our trails-using community keeps growing and becoming more diverse every year, and it isn’t just made up of lifelong locals. We have folks that have made Hot Springs HOME over the last nearly eight years because of our trails. We have visitors that we get to reunite with year after year, sometimes more often, because of our trails.
“It’s hard to put into words the impact that these trails have had on our quirky, historic, little town, and our region . . . but it is, for certain, undeniable.”
Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison, who spearheaded the effort starting in 2016 to use the former city waterworks’ three lakes and wooded area to create a mountain biking trail system in the northern section of the city, said:
“In 2016, when we started thinking about creating a trail system in the city-owned area in the northern section of Hot Springs, we knew that the beautiful wooded hills embracing a series of small lakes would prove to be a wonderful amenity for our citizens and that it might also prove attractive to a segment of our millions of annual visitors.
“It didn’t occur to us then that the Northwoods Trail System would be combined with the existing Cedar Glades trails and become the favorite mountain biking destination among bikers from Arkansas and beyond.
“Thanks to Traci Berry and her dedicated crew the Northwoods/Cedar Glades trails have been voted the MTB March Madness Champion yet again. Ride on!”
Berry said, “Less than 10 minutes from downtown Hot Springs we have more than 30 miles of trail with a remote/backcountry feel, accessible from downtown by the Pullman Trail across National Park property. The trails provide exciting recreation for bikers of all skill levels. And, although it is a ‘bike optimized’ trail system, it is open to hikers, trail runners, birders, and other nature enthusiasts. And soon, thanks to a grant from the Oaklawn Foundation, it will welcome non-motorized water recreation enthusiasts. On April 6 we will break ground on an expansion that will leave us with 40 miles of trail, including Cedar Glades, complete bi-directional loops around all three lakes that will be open to foot and bike traffic, and open the upper two lakes to non-motorized water recreation.”
For more information contact Traci Berry at 501-321-2027.
