FARMINGTON, N.M. – New Mexico cities are racing to become the next outdoor recreation hot spot. Farmington plans to hit the trails this summer. 

“Most of it is going to be designed to be constructed with mountain bikes specifically in mind, that means that they’re going to be directional. It means that they’re going to have a varying array of skills, features, technical features,” said Evan Pilling, outdoor recreation coordinator for the City of Farmington. 

Mountain biking can be big business in the Four Corners, and the city will invest about $1.5 million to move 10 acres of dirt in the first part of the project.

“That’ll be is a little more of a heavy lift, just because it has a lot of hardscape features,” said Warren Unsicker with economic development for the City of Farmington. 

The full 93 acres of land for the project was donated to the city with desire for its turn into a nonmotorized recreation area, and this will be the first of its kind to be built by the city.

“This is going to be a really nice, family-oriented and mostly natural playground for folks to play in,” Unsicker.

Riders will have to stick to existing trails for about a year before the city moves on to the next phase. The system is expected to have more than 10 miles of trails once it’s complete. 

Some of the money comes from the state’s Outdoor Recreation Division.

“We’re just excited about this to have a municipally-owned, curated bike park that we can make sure meets the standards that we see for all of our parks here in Farmington,” said Unsicker.