Trail Park Klínovec: Endless Flowtrails, the Brutal Illegal and Cheap Czech Living

Half a day is enough for 55 kilometres and over 3,000 vertical metres of descent — Trail Park Klínovec in the Czech Ore Mountains is compact, cheap, and with the Illegal it has one of the most honest enduro trails I've ridden all year. A guide for everyone coming down from the north who wants to warm up before the Alps.

Klínovec was the very first lift-served bike park I ever rode, back last year. I liked it even then — and the enduro trail Illegal had really got under my skin, even though there were sections I couldn't get down. A year and a lot of vertical metres later, I wanted to know how that would feel now. The short answer: this park is exactly right for a stopover coming from the north — short distances, fair prices, a few surprisingly long flowtrails, and in the Illegal a trail that hits my natural-trail taste dead on.

Trail Park Klínovec at a Glance

The Area: Compact, but with Substance

Klínovec is not a huge resort, and that's exactly its strength. Every trail starts at the top station and ends back at the same base station. You ride the chairlift up — it's fairly fast and has a hood in case it rains — gaining around 500 vertical metres, and up top you have a free choice every time: blue, red, black or the full-on option. Depending on the line, the descents run between two and ten kilometres. A bike park can hardly be more compact than this, and you never lose time on long transfers.

The mountain itself is the Klínovec — Keilberg in German — at 1,244 metres the highest peak of the Ore Mountains. So don't expect big alpine vertical; bottom line it's just under 500 metres of drop per run. What the park makes of that is impressive all the same. The three main flowtrails Azur, Rubin and Baron are among the longest gently descending trails in Europe, and the Illegal plays in a league of its own.

A word on the grading: in my opinion the three main trails are rated a touch generously. Azur would be a green line elsewhere, Rubin more of a blue, Baron a red. That's not a criticism — it simply makes Klínovec a very approachable park where you can build up nicely. The Illegal, on the other hand, has more than earned its black category.

Lift & Tickets

There's a chairlift from the base station to the top station, around 500 vertical metres, with a weather hood. It moves briskly, so the turnaround times stay short. Alternatively you can pedal the vertical yourself — the trails all end right at the base station, from where you can grind back up. The park is part of the Gravity Card — with the card you pay no daily lift ticket. Without the card, you buy a day or single ticket right at the base station (a single ride is around €8.50); children up to five ride for free.

It's open daily from 9:30 to 18:00, in season from roughly May to October. The base station has bike rental, a workshop/service, bike wash and food — so you don't have to arrive fully self-sufficient.

The Trails at a Glance

Figures per Trailforks (length, vertical drop). All trails start at the top station and end at the base station.

Azur: The Endlessly Long Blue

At 10 kilometres, Azur is the longest trail in the park — a very, very long blue flowtrail genuinely suited to the whole family. Gentle gradient, wide berms, no nasty surprises. We rode it to warm up, but honestly turned off halfway because it got a little too boring for us. For beginners, kids and anyone looking for their first contact with berms, though, it's a dream. You can ride forever without ever leaving your comfort zone.

Rubin: The Trail You Ride Most

Rubin is the flowing heart of the park for me. 7 kilometres, continuously descending, with berms you can carry good speed through, small jumps here and there and plenty of grip. Through forest, then out in the open again, very varied. From halfway on it noticeably speeds up, and you're surprised how much speed suddenly builds. This is the trail you want to ride two or three times in a row — and it's also the one most people are on, without it ever getting tight. It's no coincidence that many riders name Rubin as the park's secret tip and their personal favourite: it has everything a flowtrail should, without ever getting dull.

Baron: Flow Meets Rock Garden

Baron was the most fun for us. Also fairly fast, a few jumps thrown in — but from the second half on it gets rough, with rock gardens that really challenge you. Anyone riding the trail top to bottom in one go needs decent strength in forearms and wrists.

For 2025 the operator put in serious work here: the jumps — especially in the lower part — have been completely reshaped and now ride buttery smooth, plus there's a new, nice wooden Klínovec Wallride and a "Shark Fin". The character is a genuinely cool mix: lots of stones, bumps and rough natural sections, but always interspersed with a fun, demanding flow — nothing you just roll through sitting down. Practically everything is built safe and can be rolled; if you want, you jump and boost. One tip: on a pure downhill bike you have to pedal a lot in the flatter sections — for the Baron an enduro is almost the better tool. It's the kind of black trail that's still tame enough to commit to, but honest enough that you feel it in your hands at the bottom. We rode it twice to finish the day.

Illegal: My Final Boss from Last Year

And then the Illegal. That was my final boss last year, and I really wanted to know how it would go this time.

A jump line has since been added at the entrance. Honestly, I don't yet dare to hit it — a few gaps that sit outside my comfort zone. I think at some point I'll have to hire a coach in a park and follow their wheel so I can properly judge the speeds. On my own I don't trust myself yet.

But then comes the entry into the forest, and it's on immediately: steep, rooty, blocky, rocky — and it stays that way the whole way down. Part of it runs through the so-called "Dark Forest" — dense, dark woodland where the ground stays almost permanently wet and damp while the rest of the park is bone dry. Here you ride through a stream crossing (wet feet included), over smooth rock slabs with a drop onto them and back off, and several really steep sections with a drop-off right beside them demand full concentration. You have to let off the brakes on the steep bits, otherwise you go over the bars. Much of it can be rolled with the right line choice — but you have to know the trail a little; it really asks everything of you. The upper part now has two parallel lines (left and right) that only merge just before the finish.

This time I got down cleanly, over the spots where I still failed last year. And it was genuinely fun: technical, blocky, demanding, always hunting for the line, just minimally outside the comfort zone so you still dare, but you're properly challenged. Exactly my thing. At just two kilometres the Illegal is short — but it's the densest, most honest run in the park, and according to the operator the only trail in Europe to make the world's top 10.

Full protection is mandatory here: full-face helmet, back protector, knee and elbow pads, at least 120 mm of travel.

DH Klínovec: For the Fast Only

If you want to really let it rip, the DH Klínovec is a world-cup-grade race track: 3 kilometres studded with nearly thirty jumps up to ten metres, host of the iXS Downhill Cup and the Czech Championships. This is not a trail to dip a toe into — 150 mm of travel and full protective gear are recommended, and the speeds are accordingly high. We left it out this time, but it rounds off the offering at the top end.

How Busy Is It? (Peak-Season Check)

One thing that surprised me positively: I was there on Saturday, 18 July — right in the middle of the absolute peak holiday season, on a weekend. And it wasn't crowded. Always a bit going on, sure, but you never had to wait longer than three or four chairs to get on. On the trails too there was congestion only very rarely. Especially on the more demanding lines like Rubin and Baron, most riders already have a good level and a certain base speed, so you rarely catch up to anyone. That's really pleasant — especially compared to some parks in Austria, where weekends in peak season can genuinely get packed.

On Site: Campervan, Food, Prices

Overnighting with the Campervan

There are two options right at the park:

1. At the base station. A large car park where most people stay. In the upper part you're allowed to stay overnight for a small fee, with toilets and even showers.

2. On the plateau above. A little higher up stands an old building with a large antenna tower that reminded us — in atmosphere — a little of the old NATO base in Finale Ligure; not in architecture at all, but in mood. You stand on a plateau, in our case right on the edge with a clear view across the valley and over the mountains, facing west. Which means: a beautiful, blood-red sunset included.

Food: Hearty and Cheap

The first thing you notice in the Czech Republic is the prices. In the evening we ate in the nearby town (Boží Dar): pork knuckle with sauerkraut for me, one or two proper Pilsner Urquells, ice cream with hot raspberries for dessert — €14 all together. That makes a holiday rather more fun than the €20 Kaiserschmarrn in a hut in Saalbach. On the second evening we went to the oldest restaurant in the place, a deep-green painted building: pork chop with sauerkraut for me, fresh trout for my mate, Pilsner Urquell again, evening sun in our faces. You don't have to eat out every night — but with food and prices like these you're happy to. Diesel is much cheaper too: before setting off I'd filled up in Germany at €2.20 a litre, in the Czech Republic it was €1.50. So for the drive down from the north, tanking up locally pays off noticeably.

Service at the Park

The base station has bike rental, a workshop and a bike wash — handy if you come down from the north without a full spares kit.

Practical Info

Getting there: Klínovec sits right on the German–Czech border near Oberwiesenthal, easily reached from Saxony and the whole of northern and eastern Germany. For many it's the first gravity park on the way towards the Alps.

Gravity Card: Klínovec is a Gravity Card area and one of the northernmost parks on the card. Coming from the north, it's the perfect place to stop over, warm up, tank up cheaply and ride off the beaten track. More on the Gravity Card and my tour through the Alps →

Who's it for? Beginners and families are well served on Azur and Rubin. Advanced riders find enough challenge on Baron, Illegal and the DH. A pure bike-park pro will have the area done in a day — but as a stopover or weekend destination from the north it's ideal.

Nearby: Just a few minutes away, Trail Park Plešivec is another gravity park that lends itself to a second day. And for a bit of culture, Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) with its Becherovka Museum and thermal springs is worth a detour.

Season: approx. May to October, daily 9:30 – 18:00.

Trailforks: Trail Park Klínovec on Trailforks — full map with current trail status and ratings.

My Setup

• Bike: Amflow PL e-MTB
• Travel: 170 mm, Öhlins RFX 38 / EXT Coil
• Tyres: Continental Kryptotal
• Accommodation: Campervan, pitch at the base station / plateau

More Trail Guides

These guides come out of my Gravity Card Explorer Tour 2025/26 — personal experience reports from a campervan perspective, focused on trails, pitches and what you really need to know.

Verdict

Klínovec isn't an area you travel to for a whole week — but it doesn't want to be. As the northernmost building block of the Gravity Card, it's the perfect stopover: compact, cheap, with long flowtrails to warm up on, and in the Illegal a trail that honestly challenges even experienced enduro riders. If you're heading from the north towards the Alps, you should stop here for a weekend — it's worth it, precisely because it's so relaxed and off the crowds.

For me it was also a nice benchmark: the Illegal, still my final boss last year, went through cleanly this time. Sometimes it takes an old trail to show you how much vertical lies in between.

Visited: 18 July 2026 — part of the Gravity Card Areas Explorer Tour.