St Helens

Destination overview

Just over the Blue Tier from Derby, St Helens is a cute little beach town with an epic wilderness ride, and trails to suit everyone from the gravity fiends to adventure-hungry XC whippets.

By now, you’ve probably heard of The Bay of Fires Trail, a 42km wilderness ride that kicks off with a 14km descent. Starting from the top of the Blue Tier, The Bay of Fires Trail takes riders on a journey from the wispy subalpine scrub, 1360m down through a myrtle canopy, into lush rainforest and dry sclerophyll forests, leading to the white sand of Swimcart Beach.

Don’t forget about Flagstaff

The Flagstaff Stacked loops are a short 6km pedal from the town centre, all on purpose-built bike paths and singletrack, totally protected from cars.

With over 60km of trails, you can pedal the stacked loops, or head out to the Dreaming Pools for a 27km adventure ride. If gravity is more your thing, jump on one of Gravity Isle’s shuttles up to Loila Tier and check out the rock work on Mack 10.

Cast a line or catch a wave

St Helens is the sportfishing capital of Tasmania, so there is plenty to do on the water, and the seafood is to die for. Jump on a charter and go deep-sea fishing or hire a kayak and explore the saltwater estuaries. If fishing isn’t your jam, grab a board and hang ten or a respirator and explore the briny deep.

St Helens hosts two days of the Dragon Trail MTB stage race, across The Bay of Fires Trail and Flagstaff.

Before mountain bikers came to town, St Helens was already an established tourist destination, so there are plenty of places to eat and stay.

Have you ridden here? Tell us about it!

Gallery

Region Trail Map

Tell us about your ride

2 responses to “St Helens”

Michael Eastwood says:

31 May 2024 at 9:19 am

I like Dreaming Ponds. Leave from the hub and work your way up to the top of the tier on Going up (its spelt a bit different than that using Aussy slang) It feels like you not even climbing and then pop out on the top of the tier so its good fun. Take the Dreaming Ponds track and have a ball, watch out though, bit skatey in a few sections. Have a dip in the ponds and waterfall if keen and then drop down a bit further although be prepared to suffer a bit on the climb back up to the hub. What a buzz.
Mike says:

18 April 2024 at 1:13 pm

I have ridden all the trails at St Helens.
The trails are well maintained and ride well in all conditions.
The surface soaks up water and the trail fairies have a done a lot of work on drainage to ensure any surface water drains away quickly.
This makes the trails suitable for riding all year round. Where other parks will leave you covered head to foot in mud after any serious rain, these trails make great riding conditions.
There are options for the whole family from simple kids loops to black diamond down hills.
Take the shuttle to the tier to enjoy Send Helens or Mach 10 or ride the blue stacked loop trails.
The stacked loop trails have had a lot of work done recently and have some great flow sections.

At the trailhead there is a canteen, toilets and shaded seating which gives a great area for families to base themselves.