Cougar Park Mountain Bike Park

First time riding trails on a mountain bike. Rode to the Mossop road carpark. Read the map quickly and pedalled off through the Cougar Park entrance with too much confidence. This park delivers both scenic views and thrilling rides often scary at some sections edgy cliff faces and steep downhills. Especially for beginners with no trail training. Bike took a good thrashing at the start of the Tigger trail jump. Worse I did was land this jump poorly. Stood up with my helmet slightly to the side the seat pointed to the right and right side handle bar to the centre. Was able to re-adjust and continue but didn't finish the Tigger Trail because the signage confused me. Continued the day bruised up my right side.Jack and Jill hurt my legs with the steady climbs and narrow trail, Old spice has short steep hill climbs and surprise quick descents. Pebbles was tracked with twigs and debris over the trail and Flintstone presented muddy dips with puddles.For an unfit first timer on a mountain bike with zero experience on trails I did fall off a few times on the steep climbs and fell into some interesting native shrubs, sharp weeds and trees skidding through mud or running over pinecones.The tracks I rode here are maintained very well and most are easy to follow and ride through even after some rain fall.Attended this park again 2nd time after some good weather. Experienced thigh pains gradually climbing Mountain Lion and nearly gave up the continuous uphill of Bedrock rise. Had too much fun riding the nice downhill flow thinking I could easily glide on the birms. Slid my bike through soft dirt slightly off track and fell off onto my right shoulder midway through Bam Bam. I overused my breaks on Master Blaster but found this to be my scary highlight of the day with a good balance of cruise climbing and quick blasting with some very crazy downhill blasts. Finished off the day lazily rolling too quickly with the scary downhill on Mable Mile at the end before exiting the park.These trails are mentally and physically exhausting.Be prepared to have an absolute great few hours here huffing and puffing with adrenaline and plenty of dopamine afterwards or good pain. Plan to do an up hill trail from your start location so that you can plan a down hill trail from there.Big thank you to the people and the community that look after and keep this beautiful place open to the public. Will most likely frequent this park going forward. As a newbie to mountain biking this place is a great start for first timers.

Epic trails, well maintained, will keep you entertained for hours. There is access from in town and also an alternative access at the end of Newell road just 2 mins drive north of Tokoroa.

Good variety of trails for different skill levels, signage is ok though can be confusing for people who havnt been before. Had a blast!! but be wary of fallen debris after bad weather and those bloody acorns!!

Fun riding. Most is non extreme, ideal for hard tail riding. None of the hills are too extreme, but well worth a visit. Ideal for night riding!

Great fun flowing trails, better signage would be good but all and all fun park for all levels.

Great bike park. The best that I've been to outside of Rotorua. Google maps takes you to the wrong carpark (Apr 2021) so do your research beforehand if you're here for first time.

Very good downhill trails, need to get back and try more, awsome for a free park, thanks to the volunteers who maintain.

Awesome place! Bit of a climb to get to the top but the tracks down are awesome. Well cared for, great range of grades and easy to access. Well worth a visit.

It's been at least five years since I have visited cougar park and wow what a difference with all the trees gone. Tracks were good to ride , clean and free of debris,

Very much worth the drive if you've never been here.New trails don't seem to be mapped anywhere, and trail forks didn't really match to my GPS location.The locals where extremely friendly and helpful.There are trails for all skill levels.