How Cunningham Park in Queens Makes Mountain Biking Accessible in NYC

What are the Mountain Biking Trails in Cunningham Park Like?

There are, officially, seven named trail loops within Cunningham Park, but you don’t need to know this to enjoy any of its two-way trails. No matter where you enter the park, there is abundant signage that clearly indicates the difficulty level of the paths you can choose to follow. The park employs the standard rating system used by most mountain biking trail builders, drawn from the ratings used by ski resorts. Trails marked with a green circle are the easiest, blue square trails are intermediate, and black diamond trails are more difficult. Double black diamond trails are for experts only, but none of the designated paths within the Cunningham Park have been given this notation. Think this means you won’t see experienced mountain bikers in the park at your own peril—they know you can make any trail an expert trail just by riding it faster.

Besides its small relative footprint—the entire mountain biking trail section of the park is only a fifth of a square mile large—Cunningham Park is known among local mountain bikers for being relatively flat. Where many parks are built around a massive central climb, which you can flow down without pedaling, Cunningham Park only features a total elevation change of 40 feet from its highest point to its lowest. This is a feature not a bug, as the terrain will reward cyclists who are able to continuously keep pressure on the crank arms as the terrain undulates underneath them. It also means the park is totally doable for cyclists on single speed or fixed gear bikes—traclocross disciples, rejoice!

Another thing you’ll notice—despite the fact the trail is completely open to the public and free to use, it’s in basically pristine condition. Because our visit occurred at the end of winter, some of the park’s pump tracks were still closed for seasonal maintenance. But everything that was open was completely clear of trash and seemed in excellent condition, at least to my novice eyes. Of course, as our group was leaving, I noticed Jim was heading back into the park alone, equipped with a massive shovel. I guess the work of a volunteer trail builder is never truly finished.

Photo by Sean Dougherty courtesy Lauf Cycles

The Green Trail

Beginner mountain bikers will feel most comfortable sticking to the two arterial loops on either side of the Clearview Expressway, as well as the central path that connects them via a bridge. This trail is quite flat, with no sudden steep ramps or drops, and relatively wide, but by no means boring. There are plenty of obstacles along the trail that you’ll have to get used to rolling through, over, or around, including tree roots, large rocks, and one rail-less bridge.

As I was rolling with the group, just behind Jim, I noticed the trail builders had left plenty of optional obstacles along the trail that could give novice mountain bikers the chance to tackle a challenging feature in isolation. I took his lead and sent it over the tiniest rock jump, and was surprised how easily I was able to land it. If I had been on my own, I likely would have just rolled down the path just to the side of it. If only the dude behind me, who was mountain biking for the first time, heeded the same advice. He ended up eating it on the way down. Luckily, the only consequence was a small hole in his Patagonia puffer.

The Blue Trails

Once you’ve used the green trails to get warmed up, the park offers you plenty of intermediate trails that allow you to test your capabilities a bit more. These named trails tend to be narrower than the green trails, with more frequent and harder-to-avoid obstacles like big rocks and fallen logs. Here, you’ll also start to have to manage short hills and sharper turns, but only occasionally at the same time.

I didn’t get the time to ride around any of these during our quick half-hour in the park, but many of them were in plain view as we rolled around the green trails in our large group. “Iguana” is probably the easiest of the bunch, which features a few long straightaways that you can use to get speed to fly down the hill back towards the main trailhead at the intersection of 67th Avenue. I also feel compelled to go back to try “IMBA,” in the northeast corner of the park. That trail starts with a quick climb, before you go right into a twisty descent.

Photo by Sean Dougherty courtesy Lauf Cycles

The Black Trails

After a loop with the entire group, Jim led a few of us along his favorite trails in the park. Of course, they were all the more advanced ones. I knew to expect steeper climbs and tougher terrain, but I was delightfully surprised how many of the most challenging features along the path were optional.

Our lap began on “Thrilla,” a speedy section of switchbacks that required you to turn off the part of your brain that would make you believe you can’t actually fit in the tight space between large trees. Eventually, the trail opened up into a section with more drastic changes in elevation that required a bit more skillful gear changes and feverish pedaling to make it up without stopping. (Luckily, the strength I’ve developed on Zwift over the winter translated just fine to the meat space.)

Even these advanced trails felt approachable. Part of that was due to design that allows riders to steer around certain obstacles or ramps. It also helped that the hardest trails are relatively short, and usually loop back towards a chill section of the park where you can catch your breath. With more time, I think I would have spent my day doing some of the more fun sections over and over again, each time trying to go over additional challenging features.

Just before we had to head back to the start, I had the chance to do a bit of this along the end of Thrilla, which features a fast descent and two quick jump off points that lead right into a series of berms. The first time I did this, I skipped the first jump and landed the second comfortably. When I tried to do it again, I felt confident enough to try and do both jumps in succession. Unfortunately, I caught more speed from the first one than I was expecting and didn’t quite angle myself right on the exit of the second one. For the first and only time of the day, I was forced to pick myself off the ground.

Still, I’m glad I tried. And if I'd had more time to spin around before we had to leave, I would have tried it again.

Photo by Sean Dougherty courtesy Lauf Cycles

How Do You Get to Cunningham Park?

Cunningham Park is located deeper into Queens than many New York City transplants ever find themselves. (Unless they, like me, are the children of South Asian immigrants and happen to have lots of relatives in Long Island.) This part of the city lacks well-connected, safe cycling infrastructure, even compared to other parts of the borough like Astoria and Jackson Heights. That said, it’s possible to get to the park entirely on a bike without having to do much riding on super sketchy roads. Of course, given how slow it can feel to ride mountain bikes on paved streets, I think the best way for most people to get from wherever they live to Cunningham Park starts with a train.

If you’re coming from the city, take the F train to its northern terminus at Jamaica-179 St. From there, ride North up Midland Parkway, a very suburbs-coded road with a median of trees between two lanes of one-way traffic, until you reach 188th Street. From there, you should turn left and ride north until you hit 73rd Avenue, which has a bike lane you can take all the way to the mountain biking park. Unfortunately, it’s not protected.

If you happen to be closer to a LIRR station than an F train, your best way to get to the park would be via the Broadway stop on the Port Washington line or the Queens Village stop on the Hempstead line. (There are stops slightly closer on both lines, but you’ll have to navigate more dangerous streets between them and the park.) From Broadway, I’d go down to Kissena Park via 160th Street, then head east on Underhill Avenue to link up with the Kissena Corridor Park paths that will take you under the 495 and right to the Cunningham Park trails.

From Queens Village, I would white knuckle it on a few blocks of Jamaica Avenue (genuinely sorry about this), then turn left onto 222nd Street, which has a painted bike lane. I’d turn left on Braddock Ave (another stressful situation) but take comfort in the fact that it’s only a few blocks before you can take a right onto Winchester Boulevard, which has a bike lane you can ride all the way to Alley Pond Park. From there, ride the Long Island Park Motor Parkway bike path all the way to 210th Street, which will take you directly to the main bike park trailhead.

Where to Rent a Mountain Bike in New York City

To really get the most out of the Cunningham Park mountain biking trails, you’ll need a mountain bike. While the green trails and some of the blue trails are probably doable on a gravel bike, I certainly wouldn’t recommend doing any of the black diamond trails without at least a front suspension fork. If you don’t own a mountain bike, there are unfortunately no stores I’ve found within the city that rent them. If you want to rent a mountain bike near New York, you’ll have to go into Long Island. Jen’s Cycles in Syosset will rent you a Giant Stance 2 for $75/24 hour day or $200 per week.