If you've been riding in Maine for any length of time, you've probably had the conversation. Sunday River had a bike park. It was good. Then it didn't. What happened?
The short answer is that Sunday River made a strategic decision to focus its summer operations elsewhere — primarily on its golf course, hiking, and other resort amenities that deliver a better return on the operational investment required to run a lift-accessed bike park. Running a bike park isn't cheap: you need dedicated trail crew, bike-specific lift infrastructure, rental fleets, mechanically savvy staff, and insurance that accounts for the increased liability of gravity riding. For a four-season resort with a lot of competing summer priorities, the math didn't add up the way it does at a mountain that leans fully into the bike park model.
That's the business reality. The trail reality is that Sunday River's terrain — the pitch, the variety, the natural features — was genuinely well-suited to mountain biking. Riders who lapped it during its operating years remember it fondly, and the closure left a real gap in the western Maine gravity scene that Sugarloaf and Mount Abram have only partially filled for riders in that corridor.
Is There Any Chance It Comes Back?
Nothing is official and Sunday River hasn't signaled any plans to reopen lift-accessed bike operations. Resort priorities can shift — particularly as mountain biking continues to grow as a summer revenue driver for ski areas across the Northeast — but there's no indication that Sunday River is actively moving in that direction.
The most realistic path to a Sunday River bike park revival would be a significant shift in the resort's summer strategy, new ownership priorities, or a change in the economics of bike park operations at that scale. Any of those are possible in a long enough timeframe. None of them appear imminent.
In the Meantime
For riders based in the Sunday River corridor — Bethel, the Mahoosuc Range area, western Oxford County — Mount Abram in Greenwood is the closest lift-accessed option and a genuinely excellent one, particularly for intermediate riders and families. Sugarloaf is a longer drive but the most complete bike park experience in the state.
The Sunday River trail network itself — the cross-country and non-lift-accessed trails in the surrounding area — remains rideable and worth exploring if you're in the region. And if you're willing to pedal for your gravity fix, the Bethel area has more to offer than most riders realize.
We'll update this if anything changes. In the meantime, the three parks that are operating are worth your time and your fuel money.
Bethel Community Forest Offers Legit Gravity Trails →
The full guide to Maine's lift-accessed bike parks →
Will Camden Snowbowl Load Bikes on the Lift Anytime Soon? →
Destination-Worthy Bike Parks Worth Traveling For →