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Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill

San Lee Park

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CategoryAverage Rating
Overall :   4.2 / 5.0   based on 62 votes
Technical :   4.1 / 5.0   based on 62 votes
Climbing :   3.4 / 5.0   based on 62 votes
Freeride :   2.5 / 5.0   based on 62 votes
Scenery/Wildlife :   3.4 / 5.0   based on 62 votes
Flow :   3.6 / 5.0   based on 57 votes

Description: A wide variety of trail terrain and features. See trail options/descriptions below for more.
Location:Sanford
Miles: about 11 miles
Skill Level: Physically fit intermediate-advanced with some expert sections. Not recommended for true beginners.
Official Park Website

Trail options/descriptions
Map
Park Hours
Directions
Rules of the Trail

Trail Options Main trail head is located in RV campground (take chained off gravel road all the way to the top from paved upper parking lot by the lakes). Please allow yourself plenty of time to complete your ride park gates are locked exactly at closing time not at sunset so all winter till April that means 5 PM. Park shuts entrance gate hour before closing time. Park has limited parking capacity and sometimes fills up during prime times. Dont get caught sneaking in the ranger doesnt play.

1.      Short loop this is the first one that novice riders should try enter trail at RV campground & skip Bouldergiest and take first exit point at the bottom of Gold Rush / follow Lake Trail across headwaters bridge around to 300 lake bridge. This will give you an approximately 4 mile ride with no bail out options. Trails in this area are flowing contour trails some parts are rocky with lots of roots, some log crossings and a hand full of cool berms. Part of this trail is tight single track with some moderate climbing and is best suited for novice to advanced riders.

2.      Front Half Varies from 5 to 6 miles depending on whether you ride or bypass the tech sections. Our biggest rock features live in this part of the trail system Bouldergiest / Ledges / Gauntlet / Free Fall - all have bypasses for the scared. Exit at Exit Point #2 (half way point) if you have had enough or it near closing time.

3.      Second Half Jungle starts the second half at exit point 2. From the upper parking lot, take 300 bridge between upper and lower lake use extreme caution while crossing bridge and yield to fishermen & foot traffic walk if necessary. Keep going straight at the end of the bridge onto the bike trail. The second half features some of our tightest roughest single-track and our highest ridges. It is also home to our newest machine cut marvels including .3 mile Mega Jump a cross between downhill course and dirt jumps / Drop Zone / Six Pack / Lizard Lick / Dragons Tail are all new cool bermed out machine cut stuff. The old favorites are still there - Rock Nest Monster / San Lee Slick Rock / Charlies Mountain / Twin Peaks. We see a developing trend of people coming out just to ride the second half so they can focus on Mega Jump and the rest of the bermed out machine cut stuff. From the 300 bridge you are committed to ride at minimum almost 5 miles before you get to the first exit point Exit #3 but if you made it that far I would stick it out another .7 mile and ride Dragons Tail the cool new exit section.

Other Park Features Bring the whole family while you ride they can enjoy this great park. Brand new playground / plenty of picnic tables / fishing / hiking / visit the nature center with a great variety of snakes and raptures. In season they have paddle boats & kayaks plus a year round RV campground and a seasonal tent campground.

Mega Jump the new crown jewel of the parks trail system it consists of thee - one tenth mile downhill legs adding something previously missing from the trail system > Jumps really big jumps / table tops / step downs / drop offs / pump rollers / oh did I say berms very big berms. Mega Jump is so cool we built it so you can reride it as many times as you please by taking a short little connector trail back to the top. I have rated it as black diamond and it is if you big ring it up to full jumping speed but if you ride it slow you can roll it easy bike shop owners 5 year old rode it so dont be scared.

Drop Zone we rearranged a few of our plentiful boulders with the help of the powerful Kubota hydraulics to create two big drops embedded into a once plain hill side. Stay left for smaller sixer drops stay right for wheel swallowing niner drops. After completing the drops hold on for a massive S shaped berm.

Six Pack Our coolest berm section, a sweet combination of 6 berms / Us and 90s / the Gs will pin you to your bike accelerating you into a big exit jump.

Lizard Lick we replaced the straight up climb after the last big creek crossing with a deeply bench cut contour following zigzag up to the tent campground. This new section features a black diamond solid rock slab (wall) to climb. Dont fall off - below is a not so soft rocky hiking trail to land on. Non experts can stay right to take a cool but tight single track switchback to bypass the Lizard Lick slab.

Dragons Tail is located after our super tuff gravel climb near the end of the trail system. I replaced the old straight down fall line exit trail with a bermed out contour hugging big ring wonder. This section starts with a 120 long triple berm that will wow you. I wanted you to finish your ride with a giant smile as you carve slope style down through a ravine having wall to wall fun as a final reward for completing the San Lee challenge.

The Gorge I did not forget the front side tree cutters on boarding property forced us to redesign launch pad and front side flow to fix some property line miscalculations. What looked to be a disaster turned into a blessing! The massive ravine bordering Bouldergiest now is home to one very sweet hand built, deep cut bench forming a narrow single-track trail zigzagging up the side of the gorge ravine way cool. George / Steven / John and the Storm Racing team hand carved this baby right out of the ravine side wall. Oh it starts with a new rock strewn creek crossing.

Park Hours
November-March
Monday-Sunday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

April
Monday-Sunday 8:00 am to 7:00 pm

May-August
Monday-Sunday 8:00 am to 8:00 pm

September
Monday-Sunday 8:00 am to 7:00 pm

October
Monday-Sunday 8:00 am to 6:00 pm

San-Lee Park is Closed:
New Years Day Friday, January 1, 2010
Thanksgiving -- Thursday & Friday, November 25th, & 26th, 2010
Christmas Friday, & Saturday, December 24th & 25th Sunday& Monday December 26th, & 27th, 2010

Directions:

San Lee Park is located in Sandord on the east side of town very close to the US-421 bypass



Take 421 South into Sanford.
Exit onto the new Sanford bypass hwy Southeast (exit #70.)
After ~4 miles, exit on Kelly Rd, turn left.
1 mile later, Kelly Rd T intersects with Pumping Station Road.
Turn right. Sanlee park is 1/2 miles on the right side of the road.
Turn into San Lee Park. Go to the top of the hill to park.
The ride starts up the gravel road from this parking area.
Night riding is not allowed here except for organized group rides.

Driving Directions via Yahoo

Rules of the Trail

  1. All riders must wear a helmet
  2. Riders should sign in at the upper trail head prior to riding
  3. Do not modify the trail
  4. Allow time to finish outings before the park closes
  5. It is recommended to ride with someone else
  6. Ride only on officially marked trails



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San Lee Park trail has been reviewed 62 times by our trianglemtb.com guests.

Reviewed by:tmack229
Reviewed on:05/26/2023
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Good technical trail. Kind of feels like you’re constantly switching back but they packed quite a few miles into a small area. Other than that, the trail is fun and fairly technical. The downhill course near the end is super fun.
Reviewed by:tomfoolery!!
Reviewed on:07/07/2022
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great trail, great challenge, rockier than expected so took me by surprise, but very fun.
Reviewed by:TBarbour
Reviewed on:05/29/2022
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SanLee is definitely one of our best local trails! There’s a little something for everyone and the difficulty is really what you make of it via speed, line, etc. I wouldn’t bring a true beginner to SL, but for pretty much everyone else it’s a blast. I was worried it’d be lame while closed for all the “safety improvements”, but the newly revamped gravity section is top notch for sure! The scenery is fantastic, too. SL is a staple in my group’s rotation. Highly recommend checking it out.
Reviewed by:Tuffy_the_Wolf
Reviewed on:05/26/2022
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Best trails that are an easy drive from the triangle
Reviewed by:LoamRider
Reviewed on:01/28/2022
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An absolute blast! The renovations done on the gravity park are stunning. There’s trails for all types of riders. The single track is definitely a workout but has some great sections as well.
Reviewed by:Meow
Reviewed on:01/10/2022
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The renovations done to the gravity section are stunning. If you thought the old gravity park was fun…this is a whole new level. Improved skill progression and variety of trail choices based on skill level. There’s really nothing else like this place unless you head to WNC.
Reviewed by:MXRacer48
Reviewed on:11/09/2020
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Exactly what a down hill experience should be. Non stop fun. Plenty of down grade, table top jumps and wide berms. Then just enough climbing for a great workout.

Expert, intermediate and novice riders will all enjoy the trails.

My only recommendation is with regard to the mega jump section. The jump face is great. The landing is too short. I regularly over jumped it. And not at high speed. The landing lip is fine. The back side of the jump just needs a longer and lower grade slope. To make the entire section perfect, use the dirt from the jump in front of the berm for the back side of mega jump and allow expert riders to carry more speed into the berm. The exit table jump will probably need adjusting to be a little longer as well. I'd volunteer time and a mini ex to do the job!

Very nice park. Easy to find. I highly recommend to all skill levels.
Reviewed by:Meow
Reviewed on:10/18/2020
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Well maintained jumps, great progression for beginners or warming up before a trip to a lift access park. . I’ve been coming for a year and I rarely get tired of it. There’s 6 trails only a couple minutes long but for the area it’s expected. Pictures can be seen on their Facebook. Beats sketchy bandit jump trails. Only thing I’d suggest is to be safe, seen a few people get bucked or going OTB from carelessness

Haven’t spent much time on the single track or pump track but with the amount of people that go I’d assume it’s sweet. This is a review of only the gravity park section and in comparison to the other legal trails in the area and triangleMTB.. don’t go expecting a crankworx setup
Reviewed by:snarfmasterX
Reviewed on:08/12/2020
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singletrack portion of the park is pretty great; nice flowy downhills and some plunging whoops. There are some super rocky sections that would make the folks who love New Light say "Dang!". There is a spot at the bottom of a crazy downhill that looks like something out of Jurassic Park, so points for scenery. Hit the gravity park section after nine grueling 95-degree miles. Mistake. The gravity park is the reason I'll return. SO FUN! Berms and whoops and jumps and fast. Had a great time.
Reviewed by:anythingshiny
Reviewed on:07/19/2020
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Great set of legit trails. Plenty of technical climbing and decending with a few flowy links to keep the smiles up. There's not a lot of bail out, so plan your risk accordingly. The trails are well marked 'DANGER DROP' and such so pay attention. Well worth your time.

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