Find the Best Cycling Spots in Whatcom County

Bring your bicycle to Bellingham to experience some of the best trails and scenery in the country! Biking is one of the most popular activities in Bellingham and surrounding Whatcom County and is an essential part of the entire community. Combined all together, this entire area offers endless trails, tracks, country roads, and city streets to explore.

Whether you like leisure cycling to take in the sights, faster road biking, or extreme exploring by mountain bike, you can do it all here. Looking for a guide, tours, or where to rent a bike? Check below for more information!

Biking in Bellingham

Mountain. Road. Gravel.

Make a plan to go biking around Bellingham and experience all of this!

Hit the Trails

Mountain Biking

Road Biking

Gravel Adventure Field Guide - Bellingham & Whatcom County

Calling all gravel biking enthusiasts to Bellingham!

Explore newly curated routes in a 64-page art-forward gravel cycling guidebook that includes art, maps, and stories highlighting the community around Whatcom County.

Available for FREE at our Visitor Center (904 Potter St. in Bellingham) while supplies last.

Please note: Public access to the Shingle Bolt Route requires a non-motorized recreation access permit. Find more details here.

Freehub Bellingham Travel Guide

Discover an insider perspective on planning a biking trip to Bellingham. Combine the best trails, eats, and activities into an adventure-packed vacation!

Explore the Guide

Bike Rentals, Trails, and Travel Tips

Bring Your Bike Without a Car

No car, no problem! Get help and tips for taking the bus (Whatcom Transportation Authority) around Bellingham and Whatcom County with a bike in tow.
The Amtrak Cascades line has daily service connecting Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., meaning you can travel by train straight into Bellingham.
- Bring your bike along too! While booking your ticket, choose the option for "Add Bike to Trip." Read more about traveling by train here.

Where To Rent a Bike

Local Trails and Route Maps

Have Fun, Meet Other Cyclists!

Waterfront Pump Track

Located near the waterfront and The Portal Container Village in Downtown Bellingham, this approximately 20,000-square-foot pump track features jump lines and a skills zone.

For more information, check out Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition's website. This local stewardship, advocacy, and education group worked with the Port of Bellingham to create this exhilarating biking hotspot, which opened in 2019.

The Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition also offers other events, including the Northwest Tune-Up Festival, and is a terrific resource for responsible trail use throughout Bellingham and surrounding Whatcom County.

Mount Baker Bicycle Club

Recreational riders, mountain bikers, road bikers, cyclocrossers, and all the above! Meet up with other bicycling enthusiasts or just get help planning your next bike ride around Bellingham and surrounding Whatcom County.

Visitors and non-members are all welcome to join one of the Mt Baker Bicycle Club's rides, but they ask that anyone interested in more rides should become a member.

Everyone is welcome to utilize the extensive list of mapped out local cycling routes that can be found on their website.

Attend Annual Biking Events

Bellingham Off-Road Triathlon

Swim, mountain bike, and trail run at the Bellingham Off-Road Triathlon! The course includes an 800-meter freshwater swim in Lake Padden, 9K of challenging mountain bike single track, and a 4.1K trail run along the lakeshore through lush forests and big trees. This is a true Pacific Northwest adventure in a race!

The race can be done solo or as a relay team and is USAT sanctioned!

Bellingham Traverse

The Traverse is a multi-sport event for solo, tandem and relay teams. Run, bike, and paddle through all of Bellingham’s incredible scenery in parks, on winding trails, and in the open waterways.

This is a community event that displays a wide range of athletic abilities from those looking to compete and others just in it for fun.

Mt. Baker Hill Climb

Ascend 4,098 feet from the Mt. Baker Foothills up to Artist Point in just over 22 miles.

This timed race offers Recreational and Competitive divisions including cash prizes for the top three Male and Female finishers. Scenic SR 542 (Mount Baker Highway) is closed to traffic for this event.

Northwest Tune-Up

This three-day, community-forward festival, is fueled by biking, music, art, and beer. Spend the afternoon biking on the trails or competing in the Cascadia Dirt Cup Enduro on Galbraith Mountain.

Festivities continue on the downtown Bellingham waterfront with riding clinics, workshops, and spectator-friendly events at the pump track. Celebrate during the evening in the beer garden and dance as the sun sets during the main stage music performances.

Tour de Whatcom

Each summer, the Tour de Whatcom draws nearly 1,000 bike riders to Bellingham. This popular event begins in Downtown Bellingham and offers riders a choice of various distance routes (22, 44, 62, or 100 miles) for enjoying surrounding Whatcom County. Experience everything this part of the Pacific Northwest has to offer, with routes including views of Mt Baker, Lake Whatcom, farmland, and even beaches.

Local Guides, Trails, Tours, and More

Get Your Go! Guide

Engage in a Local Quest

Browse our Dreaming Guide

We acknowledge that Whatcom County is located on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples. They cared for the lands that included what we’d call the Puget Sound region, Vancouver Island and British Columbia since time immemorial. This gives us the great obligation and opportunity to learn how to care for our surrounding areas and all the natural and human resources we require to live. We express our deepest respect and gratitude for our indigenous neighbors, the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribe, for their enduring care and protection of our shared lands and waterways.

Bicycling

Bike Rentals, Trails, and Travel Tips

Have Fun, Meet Other Cyclists!

Attend Annual Biking Events

Local Guides, Trails, Tours, and More