Last spring an Instagram video went around promoting Santa Clarita's "brand new free bike park." According to The Signal, the camera passed a children's riding area described as "perfect for beginners," then new city signage reading "Haskell Canyon Bike Park of Santa Clarita," then drone shots of berms, jumps and ramps. The video didn't come from a city account. City Hall had held no ribbon-cutting and had said very little about why.
Six months later, the city's own page for the park in the Haskell Canyon Open Space still reads "Coming Soon!" At the State of the City on Oct. 22, though, the city included its newest bike park, off Haskell Canyon Road in Saugus, among the year's accomplishments. It shared that list with the finished $38.5 million Vista Canyon Bridge. The trails were finished earlier this year. The formal opening depends on the 1.3-mile road that leads to them.
The Trails Were the Easy Part
The city broke ground on July 1, 2025. By July 2026, The Signal described the park as "finished earlier this year." The city says the full design covers more than 380 acres and over 15 miles of trail inside an open space of more than 720 acres. The trail mix is cross-country, climbing and downhill. The posted feature list includes:
- Slopestyle lines and a dirt jump course
- A dual slalom course
- Beginner and intermediate pump tracks
- A skills learning zone
- More than 12 downhill flow and jump lines
- A dedicated event space and on-site parking
That's far more than the valley's other city bike park has. Entry is listed as free. Trailforks, a trail directory maintained by its users, lists named lines such as Granny Gear, Cranx, Coyote Climb, Canyon Crawl, Heatwave and Renegade. On Nov. 4 it marked the riding area open. The city's page still lists the park as coming soon, and the city hasn't held a formal opening.
A Road the City Doesn't Own
To reach the main parking area, you leave Copper Hill Drive and turn onto City Highline Motorway, then follow it about 1.3 miles. The name tells you whose road it is. LADWP told The Signal in May that "this land is owned by L.A. DWP and part of our power infrastructure right-of-way." The utility added that it was "in negotiation with the city of Santa Clarita to address the additional traffic on LADWP land resulting from the Haskell Canyon Bike Park Project."
The extra traffic is easy to see from the street below. Residents of Brookview Terrace told the paper that dust from the unpaved road settles on their homes. One neighbor said a daily group of riders heads up to the park between about 5 and 7 p.m. The same neighbor said the city's plan for the road kept changing, at least as it was explained to residents. First the road was to be paved. Then it would be "hard-graveled." Early this year the plan became "mitigation measures," which turned out to be a water truck dampening the dirt.
The city tied the delay directly to that road. Spokeswoman Carrie Lujan told The Signal, "We are working with DWP to address the access road and do not have a timeline as of now." The target date had already slipped. KHTS reported that the park was first expected to open in December 2025. The Signal reported a later city estimate of March 31.
In March, the city also blamed unauthorized riding in the construction area for some of the delay. By May, the obstacle the city named was the road. A finished park sat at the end of a road the city couldn't pave without the landowner's agreement, and every new rider added to the dust problem along Brookview Terrace.
What the City Bought in July
The City Council acted on the road on July 14. Agenda Item 14 was titled "Haskell Canyon Open Space Shared Access Improvements – Phase I." The council approved two contracts.
| Contract | Firm | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Phase I construction | R.C. Becker | $925,983 plus $231,496 contingency, not to exceed $1,157,479 |
| Phase II design | Psomas | $73,700 |
Phase I matches what Brookview Terrace residents had asked for. As The Signal described the scope, the work regrades and recompacts the existing road, paves it with asphalt concrete, and adds speed cushions, signs and pavement markings. Phase II answers the landowner. It covers the design of two future crossings at Haskell Creek, which the city said are part of LADWP's requirements.
The road serves the Santa Clarita Archery Range as well as the bike park. It also connects two city open spaces in Saugus, the 526-acre Haskell Canyon Open Space and the 196-acre Blue Cloud Open Space along its eastern edge. Both sit next to the Angeles National Forest and LADWP land. Paving City Highline Motorway is the infrastructure that brings that whole corner of Saugus into the city park system, and the bike park is the first piece to need it. The city lists the project under its five-year strategic plan, "Santa Clarita Pathway Forward."
That changes what to watch for. The trail map won't tell you when Haskell is about to open. Fresh asphalt, speed cushions and pavement striping on City Highline Motorway will.
The Second Way In
The city's directions list a second approach through the Blue Cloud trailhead parking lot. You reach it from Bouquet Canyon Road by taking Blue Cloud Road about 1.3 miles and following signs for the bike park. That means the park has two approach roads of about the same length, on opposite sides of the open space. One comes in from the Copper Hill Drive side and the other from Bouquet Canyon.
The Blue Cloud route matters for anyone thinking about where traffic will go once the park officially opens. The pressure doesn't all have to fall on one street, and the city's own directions already spread visitors across two corridors. For questions on access before the opening, the city's outdoor recreation staff can be reached at [email protected] or (661) 250-3754.
The construction-era rules are worth knowing too. In March, the city posted that riding dirt bikes or any motorized vehicles in the construction area "is not allowed and is actively damaging the park, delaying its opening and impacting the quality of the facility for everyone who is excited to use it." That restriction covered the construction area. The city's Haskell page gives directions, a free-entry note and contact details.
The Bike Park That Already Has Hours
Ahead of Haskell's formal opening, the valley's officially open bike park is at 20870 Centre Point Parkway. The Bike Park of Santa Clarita is free, open seven days a week from dawn to dusk, and covers seven acres. It has single-track mountain bike trails rated easy to moderate and more than 800 yards of pump and BMX track, with step-ups, step-downs, rollers and tabletops.
It's much smaller than Haskell's 380 acres, but it comes with a posted rules sign, a code of conduct and a condition report. That last item matters more as winter approaches. Before heading out after a storm, check these:
- The Parks Division Field Conditions page. The city updates it daily after weather events, at 7 a.m. on weekends and holidays and 1 p.m. on weekdays. On the Nov. 2 report, the Bike Park of Santa Clarita tracks were listed as open.
- The city trails page. It says trails "are subject to periodic closure during severe rain events," and that trail undercrossings along the Santa Clara River and its tributaries "may be closed without notice."
- The posted park rules. The Centre Point rules sign sets park hours at dawn to dusk.
The city also runs volunteer maintenance days at the Centre Point park through its recreation catalog. In August it advertised weekly Tuesday trail-building sessions at Haskell with city staff, open to volunteers 16 and older, as listed in The Signal. Some locals have already put in work on the new trails, even though the city still lists the park as coming soon.
The State of the City's theme this year was "Rolling into the Future." For the eastern end of Saugus, that future runs through the July contracts to pave 1.3 miles of LADWP right-of-way off Copper Hill Drive and to design two crossings at Haskell Creek.
At Montemayor & Associates, we follow projects like City Highline Motorway because changes like this shape daily life in Saugus well before they show up on a map. If you live near Copper Hill Drive or Bouquet Canyon and want to talk through how the Haskell Canyon access work affects your street, please contact us.
