BIKES PARKS IN BC

Sun peaks is a small resort village but has every thing you’ll need. Grocery store, restaurants etc. The riding as a bit of everything with a much more laid back vibe then Whistler. 

Never ridden Revy but the town is closer to Whistler in size. 

You might also want to look at Silver Star, not too far out of the way between Sun Peaks and Revelstoke.

Revy is a much more natural spot with small town vibes, although that's starting to change as the ski hill grows in popularity. The bike park is still new and they're growing their trail network steadily but it's not huge yet. It's also priced accordingly. 5620, as the name states, is about.a 13km long trail blue flow that drops 5620ft (1987m) to the bottom. Its also the feeder for most of the other trails at this point. Revelstoke also has meadow in the sky parkway, which is a long road up to a peak view which is likely your best family view. If you plan for Revy let me know, I'd be happy to show you around if I'm free that week and can get there. It's only a few hours away. 

Sun peaks is actually new to me, I had gone to silver star out of comfort of knowing what was there. It's excellent. Two lifts and shuttle/climb area directly across from them. Trails are extremely well built and a ton of fun

Silver star may be my favorite bike park in BC. That includes Whistler. Just a great network of trails. 

The downside of sun peaks and silver star is that they are ski resorts and are about a 30 minute drive from their closest towns, so you're mostly.stuck in town. Silver star does have the added advantage of being in Canada's biggest Fruit and Wine growing Valley, so there are a ton of options for fresh food and wine in the area if that's your thing. Kamloops bike ranch is certainly worth stopping at for a few hours also as it's on the highway. 

Either way, enjoy, you've picked a great area to explore. 

So I have been on a multiple month trip through BC since mid August and can touch on all of this and hopefully it can help!

Yes and no to both town and trail wise. I will do my best to explain it through the eyes of my wife and I. She shreds too and we bother prefer tech. 

Whistler is Whistler. Absolutely incredible for all the reasons.

I will throw out a fun different one first. Don't sleep on Big White! It is such a freaking fun place to ride! It is a mere fraction of the size of Whistler but as someone who likes rocky and fast tech, it was one of the more enjoyable places we have ridden up here. That said, there is no real town and is like 30-45 from Kelowna. Not much is happening besides the bike park so that can be eh for the whole family. But if given the opportunity to ride, it's worth it and very fun! I ride bike park to lap tech.

Revelstoke- to our surprise- does not feel that much like a mountain town(the catered to tourism type) or resort town (overpriced and empty). In a complimenting way. I say that coming from someone who has lived all over the west in a lot of mountain towns. It is a quaint little town and feels like the place to actually know your neighbors. Lots going on and everyone is out moving and grooving. Love to see that! I am sure it is growing and locals aren't happy but as of this year, it still felt very local and small which is nice. We avoided the bike park for two reasons. The primary one being that my DH bike rim was broken for majority of stay there but also because I have watched enough videos and talked to enough people to know that it lacks tech in the bike park. But not the area! I was redirected to some other zones (some not mapped). The area has insane riding! Some of it I have preferred over anywhere else including Whistler. Not all... but some. That is a place that is worth doing some shuttling around. There are some seriously proper tech trails to ride that I can recommend when you want it. Revelstoke also has a lot of other great family things you can go do to mix stuff up. The town is nice. All the tourism stuff like jet boat rides and etc is rad. Definitely a place to check out. 

Sun Peaks- freaking phenomenal resort to ride. Especially if you are a fan of fast and tech. I would say that it is less rocky by a bit than Whistler but the overall average speed, amount of brake burning, heavy compressions, and all out staying on the gassssss is higher than Whistler. It was a very fun place to ride! The town is tiny but has stuff going on in the village to entertain. We didn't stop in Kamloops but definitely a lot going on there as well. 

Holler if you have any further questions about places.

Olá! Whistler is amazing - there's nothing else quite like it. Some other places worth visiting:

Squamish is a great town and has some of the world's best riding, with lots of professional mountain bikers living and riding there. If you want to maximize your experience, contact Dialed In Cycling. They are a local mountain bike guiding and coaching company, and Dan, the owner, is just an excellent guy.

Sun Peaks is one of my favourite places to ride. It has a really nice village with multiple restaurants and things to do in the summer, but it's not on the same level as Whistler. I used to ride at Silver Star quite often, but after trying Sun Peaks, I find Silver Star not as much fun. 

Revelstoke is where I live, and I love it here! The lift-accessed riding is decent, but the number of resort trails is a bit limited. Personally, I would skip the long pedal to the top of 5620 unless you really want the extra-long descent. Last summer, the hot lap was Guilt Trip > 5620 [mid] > Rusty Spoon > Doomsday > Propane Alley > Bagful of Boogie > 5620 [lower] > End Game. If you want to ride off piste, there are many, MANY options. I would recommend contacting Wandering Wheels for guided riding in the Revelstoke area. They go everywhere and ride everything. There's also a nice little downtown area with a Saturday morning farmer's market, extensive rock climbing and hiking, waterfalls, paddlesports, etc. 

Further east in the Rockies, Fernie is a great town to ride and relax in. The lift-accessed riding isn't amazing, but if you are happy to pedal or shuttle there is a huge network of trails in the area. 

I hope you have a wonderful time on your next visit to BC!

Sun peaks is my favourite.

We usually camp there for a week or two in our van every summer.

Lots of restaurants/lounges. Good golf course, there's an indoor/outdoor pool, a few bike shops, and live bands sometimes.

Less of a party atmosphere than whistler, very chill, usually no lift lines, and still great riding. Not as beat up as whistler later in the season.

The larger jump lines aren't quite as good (or as large), but the blue trails like "stella blue" are excellent, as are the tech blacks.

You don't say how long you have and also are the rest of the family riding? 

Personally Sun Peaks is my favorite and I rate it higher than Whistler. It's so much less busy and everyone seems more relaxed. I also think the trails are just less beaten up. Yeah they aren't quite as good but on average I think the other aspects more than makr up for it and Stella Blue is hands down the best blue jump flow line at a bike park in BC with Bad Habit being a good black as well. There's enough non biking stuff for a couple of days.

Revelstoke bike park isn't great in my opinion. However the rest of the riding in Revelstoke more than makes up for it. The town is also really nice and plenty of stuff for non riders. You will ideally need a car / truck to access the best there is though as it's pretty spread out.

You could also plan on taking the ferry over to Gibson and shuttle/ride Roberts creek, go to coast gravity park and go to the beaches and small towns, gibsons and sechelt. Could be a wind down option with the family, really chill vibe. 

You'd get a pretty good feel for sunpeaks in three days. One could ride bad habit and stella blue for three days straight, in fact my wife usually does.

Another place we really enjoy is Valemount. No lift service there though, just shuttles on the weekends, or ebike up during the week. Not as much stuff for the family to do though. 

3 days is good for sun peaks especially if the family isn't riding. 

It'd be a shame to visit Revy and not ride Boulder / Frisby and / or Martha Creek but those are all a bit more logistically challenging than pure bike parks. 

This is another wild card for a suggestion but given your daughter's age - Panorama. It's very much a resort where the riding is good (but not as good as others). However it has a really good pool and some other kid friendly stuff. When my son was younger we went there.. now he laps with us so different priorities.

The problem with stella Blue is that makes me think I can actually properly do jumps.... And then every other trail reminds me that's not actually the case...

Vital forum party lap? 😂

My only comment as an Albertan is Whistler is out of the way and kind of isolated in it's own bubble when compared to all the other interior bike parks. Minimize the driving and plan a trip dedicated to the interior vs. Whistler plus more. Sun Peaks is the only one that's kind of close to Whistler, and it's not that close. You won't be lacking things to do if you skip the coast.

This is a good point. If you have a month then Sun Peaks, Revy, (Maybe Pano), Fernie, Silver star with a couple of stops in the interior (Nelson / Red) would be a phenomenal trip. Depends a bit on how much you want to travel with a 3 year old though.... If I wasn't riding I'd be struggling after 20 days in Whistler.

Throwing out another Sun Peaks reco. Sea to Sky resident, haven't had a WBP pass is years, but we've been to Sun Peaks for trips for the past two summers and it's great. Even on busy weekends you basically never wait in a lift line and the whole place is just super chill with great vibes. 

If your wife really loves the Whistler village I think she is going to be pretty underwhelmed by Revy and Golden. Neither of these are cute resort towns in comparison. They have evolved some in the last 15 years but still old resources towns. 

Riding at Silver Star is fun but there really isn't much there in the "village". A cafe and a restaurant not much else. Not sure if they have a schedule out for next summer but they do some live music nights and a family movie night later in the season. 

Another vote for Sun Peaks, its a big park, you can do more days there.  Village is small and cozy, so not sure what your wife’s expectations are, its not Whistler village but it checks the block.

I highly recommend Golden. Mount 7 is world class DH biking with a shuttle road and climb trail to the top. 4000’ descents. It is literally the easiest town to bike in. The climb trail for Mt 7 is right in town. 75% of the trails on Mt 7 are rogue, and many are easy to find. With the climb trail you can shuttle once and link together multiple trails for a multi hour ride of gnar. 

All networks are pedal access from town. 

Kicking Horse bike park sucks. There are one or two decent trails but it’s worth taking the gondola up to ride t4/lsd. 

It’s one of the easiest towns to navigate for all your rides. 

Revy bike park is alright but very limited. There are a couple of really fun trails. Shuttling boulder mountain is a good time. Revy is great riding but you have to drive to everything and connecting areas for big rides doesn’t work as well.  

Nelson is also unreal. It’s very much the opposite of Golden in terms of user friendliness but it’s worth it.