During the pandemic, my daughter learned to ride her bike without training wheels. After riding for so many years, it’s easy to forget how scary and exciting those first couple of rides can be. Luckily, learning to ride a bike unlocks a world of adventure, new views and fresh air, which I think we can all use after the last year.

As she has progressed, we have been exploring new parks and trails nearby, and it’s exciting to share some of my favorites with her. Having the added benefit of also being a Bend Park & Recreation District employee, I am familiar with the bike-friendly parks and trails in our system, and I want to share a few of my favorites.

Let’s get the bigger, often-visited parks covered first:

Shevlin Park has more than 9 miles of trail with several loops and out-and-backs available with no road crossings. Shevlin is a great fit for families. The paved service road is closed to vehicles, which is perfect for beginners or little ones on scoots and training wheels. The park also offers a series of trails for beginner to intermediate mountain bikers so my spouse can pick up dust and meet up with us later.

Pine Nursery Park has a nearly 2-mile loop around the park’s perimeter. A fishing pond, playground and Cascade views make it a nice half-day outing. With just two in-park road crossings and relatively level, this trail is good for biking with grade-school aged children and older.

Big Sky Park is a great east -side choice with a 1.6-mile out-and-back trail and no road crossings. Like Pine Nursery, it has great Cascade views, a playground and an off-leash area. Unlike Pine Nursery, it has amazing natural area and feels like it’s much farther out of town that it really is.

If you’re looking for longer rides, Larkspur Trail — South and the Old Mill section of the Deschutes River Trail are popular.

Here are a few favorite hidden gems in the park system:

Rockridge Park and Trail is a newer park in northeast Bend. This is another great family-friendly option, with two playgrounds, a skatepark, Frisbee golf course and unique rock outcroppings. Rockridge also boasts more than a mile of unpaved and accessible, paved paths that meander through the park with no road crossings.

What really sets this park apart is the natural -surfaced bike skills course. Spanning over a mile, the beginner and intermediate bike skills courses feature dirt trails with obstacles. More practiced cyclists know the obstacle features as log skinnies, corduroy, boardwalk and armored trail features. Both courses allow riders to choose which obstacles or terrain to ride or bypass as they develop their skills.

Next, Stone Creek Pump Track and Bike Skills Course is a small, neighborhood park with no road crossings. It’s a little park, but it doesn’t know that. It has a lot of character with unpaved paths that go through old-growth juniper and rock outcroppings.

Smaller than Rockridge, Stone Creek still packs a lot of fun features on its little natural-surfaced bike skills course. Plus, there’s a hardened dirt pump track for beginners looking to hone their skills.

While my daughter isn’t quite ready to take on all the features that these parks have to offer, there’s a nice mix of amenities that are challenging enough for both of us and keep things interesting.

Truthfully, I forgot how exciting a new stretch of gravel can be, and this has become a great father-daughter activity.

Personally, I’m rediscovering a lot about biking and making time for play. The best thing about learning to play again is that it has been, as they say, “like riding a bike.”

Visit the park district website for a list of bike-friendly parks and trails.