Riding Close to Home: Why Red Hill / Arthurs Seat Trails Are Our Sunday Favourite
If there’s one thing our family loves nearly as much as fresh cherries, it’s mountain biking together. With two teenage boys and a husband who lives for the trails, we’ve explored major spots, Mt Buller, Bright, even Whistler in summer but one of our all-time favourites is right here, just moments from The Cheeky Cherry.
Our go-to trails sit in the Arthurs Seat State Park / Red Hill network and our boys especially love the runs that funnel down toward Boundary Road, using trails like Link and Wombat. These trails offer thrilling downhill access from the higher sections near Arthurs Seat Road or from the car park at Boundary Road.
What we love most:
Variety & challenge: The park has over 20 km of designated mountain-bike trails through bushland with natural singletrack, rocky descents, tight curves, and flow sections. Parks Victoria+1
Trail connections: You can link Link and Wombat (for example) — Link is a shorter connector (0.4 km, two-way) that feeds into Wombat (about 1.7 km one-way descent) Melbourne Playgrounds+1
Multiple access points: Park at Boundary Road (Hillview Community Reserve, Dromana) — this spot has toilets, drinking water, and a bike maintenance station. The start of the trails is just 400 m uphill from the car park. Parks Victoria+2Parks Victoria+2
Shuttle / uplift options: Some local services offer shuttles to help you skip the climb and just enjoy the descent. Parks Victoria+1
For us, Sunday mornings often look like this: get the bikes ready, ride a few minutes, and start from the higher trails. Our son Bailey will tell you, this is his favourite place to escape, push limits, and ride. And we all feel the same rush when we hit those fast descents through bush and trees.
After a ride, a great part of the experience is wrapping up with a relaxed coffee or bite nearby (there’s a café down below the Boundary Road end, local and friendly, a perfect spot to cool off). And the views… When you pause at a lookout, you realise how lucky we are to ride in a place where bush, hills, and bay meet.
Kristy