East Kowen MTB Review: Canberra’s Biggest Trail Network

The East Kowen mountain bike trails hold 114 named singletracks inside a working pine plantation 12 km east of Queanbeyan, which makes them the biggest trail network in the ACT — bigger than Mount Stromlo's 85, bigger than neighbouring Sparrow Hill's 73. There is no café, no water tap, no shuttle, and no phone signal once you're past the gate.

That combination is the whole character of the place. Kowen is not a bike park in the modern sense; it's 4,670 hectares of ACT Government pine, first planted in 1926, with two decades of volunteer-cut singletrack threaded through the rows. You park on a dirt pad off the Kings Highway, ride 50 metres of highway shoulder, turn onto Orchard Road, and from there the forest swallows you for as long as your legs hold out.

Quick picks

• First-timer loop: the signposted 7 km circuit, then extend to the 20 km if the legs are good
• Best descent: Kowalski's Sideshow — 1,332 m one-way, 78 m of drop, the biggest single descent in the network
• Longest single trail: Heavy Cow Loop, 2,935 m and a loop in its own right
• Bring: two bottles minimum, a tube, and an offline map. There is genuinely no water and no reception
• Best months: March–May and September–November. Summer gets hot, dusty and fire-restricted
• Cost: free, 24/7, no bookings
• Pair it with: Sparrow Hill across the road — same car park, softer edges

East Kowen at a glance

Where is East Kowen and how do you get in?

Kowen Forest sits astride the Kings Highway about 12 km east of Queanbeyan, on the road out to Bungendore. The car park is a free dirt clearing on the south side, shared with Sparrow Hill. CORC is specific about one thing: park only on the right-hand side, the same side as the Sparrow Hill gate. Locals will tell you the same, less politely, if you don't.

East Kowen is the northern half. To reach it you ride along the highway shoulder for roughly 50 metres and turn up Orchard Road, a fire trail that climbs away from the traffic and drops you into the trail network proper. It's an unglamorous start to a ride and the only genuinely unpleasant part of the day.

The single toilet is a long-drop inside the Sparrow Hill forest about 500 metres from the car park, which means it's on the wrong side of the highway from East Kowen. Use it before you cross.

How big is the East Kowen mountain bike trail network?

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Our database lists 114 visible trails at East Kowen. Parks ACT manages the plantation, and CORC describes two riding areas with "several loops ranging from around 7km to over 27km". Kowalski Brothers Trailworks has hand-built well over 100 km of singletrack across East Kowen and Sparrow Hill combined.

Those two figures aren't in conflict. A trail count and a kilometre count measure different things: our 114 rows are named segments, mostly 900 m to 3 km, and a 20 km loop is assembled from a dozen of them plus fire road. Trailforks advertises 115 trails for the same region, which is close enough that the two datasets are clearly describing the same forest.

What the numbers don't convey is the layout. This isn't a hub-and-spoke park with a climb trail and a fan of descents. It's a lattice. Trails feed into trails, junctions arrive faster than you can read them, and the signposted loops are the only thing keeping most riders from an accidental 40 km day. Ride it once without navigation and you will end up somewhere you didn't plan.

How hard are the East Kowen trails?

Here's the honest answer, including the part that doesn't flatter our own data. Of the 114 visible trails, 110 carry a green rating, one is black (Bridge Loop, 638 m), and three are ungraded. There is not a single blue-rated trail in the network.

That grading is inherited and it undersells the place. What it accurately reflects is the absence of features — you will not find a jump line, a road gap, a drop, or a slab at East Kowen. Almost nothing here will hurt you on a technical level. What the green ratings completely fail to capture is the climbing. CORC rates the Orchard Road side as needing "at least intermediate levels of fitness", and AllTrails' popular East Kowen Loop route logs about 227 m of gain across 9 km with a 2.5–3 hour time estimate. Do the 20 km version and you'll climb three times that.

So: technically forgiving, aerobically not. It's XC riding in the old sense of the term. Hardpack, tree roots, pine needles underwheel, occasional rocky pinches where the trails dip out of the plantation into native scrub, and a lot of gradual up.

Which East Kowen trails should you ride?

Kowalski's Sideshow is the one to build a loop around. At 1,332 m with 78 m of descent it holds the biggest continuous drop in the network, running one-way down a set of tight switchbacks that reward looking two turns ahead.

Heavy Cow Loop is the longest trail here at 2,935 m and works as a self-contained circuit, which makes it a good sanity-check ride when you're new to the forest and don't want to commit to the full 20 km.

Sweet Apples turns up in every local's account of the place, and at 240 m it's shorter than its reputation suggests — a fast finishing sprinkle rather than a descent. Take it as the last kilometre of a longer link and it makes sense.

Kowalski's Stairway to Heaven is one of the newer lines, 1,666 m long and currently ungraded in our data. Local reports put it among the more technical trails in the network, which in Kowen terms means loose, off-camber and steeper than average rather than genuinely gnarly.

Also worth linking in: Effing Track (2,769 m, one-way), Blue Lagoon (2,163 m) and Big Wednesday (1,040 m, 49 m of descent). The Kowalski family of trails — Sideshow, Stairway to Heaven — is named after the trail-building crew who cut most of them.

Should you ride Sparrow Hill instead?

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Sparrow Hill is the southern half, 73 visible trails, and it's the easier ride by a clear margin. The trails run along the contours rather than against them, so they're faster, flatter and more forgiving, with loop options from a family-friendly 5 km up to a 40 km long loop. If you're bringing someone new to mountain biking, or you want a fast hour before work, ride Sparrow Hill.

East Kowen is where you go when Sparrow Hill has started feeling samey. Rougher surface, more climbing, longer sightlines between junctions, and a genuine sense of being deep in a forest rather than looping a hill. Most locals ride both in the same session, because the car park doesn't care which gate you use.

East Kowen vs Mount Stromlo

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These are the two big ACT networks and they're not competing for the same rider on the same day.

Stromlo is the polished venue with the 2009 UCI World Championships on its CV — our Mount Stromlo MTB Park review covers it properly. East Kowen is the one where you see four riders in three hours. Pick Stromlo for a skills day or a shuttle session, Kowen for an endurance ride or a quiet Sunday.

Why do the trails keep changing?

Because Kowen is a timber asset first and a trail network second. Sections close for thinning and clear-fell harvesting on a rolling schedule, and when a compartment gets felled, the singletrack inside it is simply gone. AllTrails reviewers have logged exactly that experience mid-loop: pines harvested, trail no longer a trail.

Around 2018 the ACT Government's harvest plan threatened roughly 70% of the volunteer-built network over a five-year window. Kowalski Brothers Trailworks negotiated with Parks ACT to defer harvesting on one East Kowen allotment for a further five years, and to open new ground for rebuilding trails displaced elsewhere. That arrangement is why a network this size still exists.

The practical upshot: heed the signage at gated fire-trail crossings, and check the Sparrow Hill – East Kowen MTB Park Facebook group before a long drive. Logging trucks use the same roads you do.

Riding history: the Mont 24-Hour connection

The January 2003 Canberra bushfires burned Stromlo and its trails to the ground, which pushed CORC's Mont 24-Hour race east. In 2011 the club cut an 18.5 km purpose-built course through East Kowen — around 60% new singletrack, the rest existing fire trail — and 2,800-plus riders across 580 teams raced it. That course, since extended to roughly 20 km, is the backbone of what you ride today. East Kowen also carried a segment of the Capital Punishment 100 km marathon, which last ran in 2015, and still hosts rounds of CORC's cross-country series.

What to bring and when to go

Autumn and spring are the pick. Hardpack holds up reasonably after rain and gets greasy rather than boggy, so a wet week doesn't write off the weekend. Summer is hot, dusty and exposed in the felled compartments, and forest access can be restricted on high fire-danger days.

Carry two bottles. There is no water on site and no shop closer than Bungendore, about 10 km east, or Queanbeyan, about 12 km west. Carry a tube and a plug kit too, because with no reception you're self-rescuing. Download an offline map before you leave the highway.

If you want to make a weekend of it, Old Kowen Homestead Recreation Area has non-powered campsites, gas BBQs, picnic tables and shelters. Bookings are essential and close two weeks ahead, and the campground can shut during fire-danger periods and heavy rain. Dogs are welcome on-leash.

FAQ

Where is East Kowen mountain bike park? In Kowen Forest, on the north side of the Kings Highway roughly 12 km east of Queanbeyan and about 20 minutes from Canberra's CBD. Park in the free dirt car park shared with Sparrow Hill, then ride ~50 m of highway shoulder to the Orchard Road entrance.

How long is the East Kowen loop? The main signposted loop is about 20 km, extended from the original 18.5 km Mont 24-Hour course built in 2011. There's a 7 km beginner circuit as well, and riders regularly stitch together 27 km or more.

Is East Kowen good for beginners? The 7 km loop is fine for a fit beginner, and technically the network is forgiving — 110 of our 114 listed trails are green-rated and there are no jumps or drops. The climbing is the barrier, not the trails. Absolute beginners are better off starting at Sparrow Hill across the road.

Do you have to pay to ride Kowen Forest? No. Trail access and parking are both free, and the forest is open 24/7 year-round. Camping at Old Kowen Homestead is the only part that requires a booking and a fee.

Is there water at East Kowen? No. There's no drinking water, no food, no bike hire and no shuttle. The only facilities are the car park and a long-drop toilet about 500 m inside the Sparrow Hill forest, on the opposite side of the highway from East Kowen.

Plan the ride

Ride the 7 km loop first to learn the junction density, then commit to the 20 km with Kowalski's Sideshow spliced in. Leave a spare bottle in the car for afterwards, because you'll want it.

Browse every trail in the network on the East Kowen park page, compare it against the rest of the territory on the ACT trails page or the ACT map view, and if you're planning a full Canberra weekend, our top MTB parks in the ACT roundup sorts out the order to ride them in.