Forrest MTB Trails Review: Riding the Otways

The Forrest mountain bike trails are one free network of 30 trails and roughly 70 km of singletrack in Great Otway National Park, two hours from Melbourne and a short drive inland from the Great Ocean Road. Two trailheads sit about 3 km apart: the rebuilt Southern Trailhead with its pump tracks and flow trails, and the original hand-cut Yaugher trails north of town. You ride them as one day out, linked by the Tiger Rail Trail.

That last point matters, because a lot of older write-ups treat Forrest as two separate parks. Locals don't, the signage doesn't, and neither do we any more. Here's how the whole network rides, which trails to prioritise, and how to fold it into a Great Ocean Road trip.

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Quick picks

• If you only ride one trail: Red Carpet, top to bottom. Upper, Middle and Lower add up to 4.5 km of berms, jumps and a quarry section with A and B lines.
• Best long ride: the 11.5 km Yaugher Super Loop, the longest single trail in the network.
• Best black: Marriners Run, 4.5 km of old-school hand-cut singletrack and one of Forrest's signature trails.
• Best for kids and first-timers: the Southern Trailhead skills park, two asphalt pump tracks and the green Korac and PBJ jump lines.
• After rain: head north to Yaugher. The ridge soil drains better than the southern gullies.
• Cost: free. Open dawn to dusk, year-round, subject to DEECA closures and Catastrophic fire-danger days.

What are the Forrest mountain bike trails like?

Forrest is a town of a few hundred people at the foot of the Otways, and it reinvented itself around mountain biking in the early 2000s after native logging wound down. The trails thread through tall wet eucalypt, fern gullies, dry heathy scrub and, on the north side, whole hillsides of grass trees. It's cross-country country first: there's no lift, the climbs are part of the deal, and the best days string 30 or 40 km of singletrack together from the saddle.

The network has two personalities. The Southern Trailhead on Rivendell Lane is the newer half, rebuilt with a $2.32 million revitalisation that opened its trailhead and skills park in October 2023. It's a stacked-loop design, so the easiest trails sit closest to the car park and things get steeper and rowdier the further out you pedal. The Yaugher side, a five-minute spin up the Tiger Rail Trail from town (or in off Boundary Road), is where Forrest started: narrow, undulating, built by hand, and largely untouched by the rebuild.

Ride both. A morning on Red Carpet and an afternoon on Marriners Run is the classic Forrest day, and the town sits neatly in between for lunch.

The Southern Trailhead: Red Carpet, pump tracks and flow

Pull into the Southern Trailhead and the first thing you see is the skills park: a large asphalt pump track, a second smaller asphalt track built for kids and adaptive riders, three skills lines and two jump lines, one beginner and one intermediate. Scooters and skaters use it too, so it's a decent place to park the family while someone heads out for a lap.

From there the numbered trails fan out:

Red Carpet is the headline act. Upper is quick and full of berms and jumps; Middle drops into the old quarry, where you can pick the A or B line depending on how brave you're feeling, and it's two-way, so watch for oncoming riders; Lower is a straight-up party run of sweeping berms and rollers. It's blue the whole way, which means a confident intermediate can ride it on the first lap and a good rider will still be grinning on the fifth.

Copper Shred is the short, sharp exception. It was upgraded in January 2025 and now packs gaps, hips, doubles and a rock garden into 668 one-way metres. Treat the blue sign as a minimum.

For the blacks, Follow the Dog runs through open eucalypt and dense fern gully, while Miller's Mongrel throws in sheer pinches and large falling banked corners. Neither is long, but both are a real step up from the flow trails.

Then there's Barlidjaru, named for the local Indigenous word for platypus. It climbs for 6 km past the Barwon Dam to the Lake Elizabeth car park. Lake Elizabeth is a landslide-dammed lake with resident platypus, and if you get there at dusk and sit quietly, you've got a fair chance of seeing one.

The Yaugher side: hand-cut cross-country

Yaugher is why Forrest earned its reputation. Vista, the trail that started all the rest, was hand-built by local Jeff Fox. The trails are skinny and twisty, they roll over roots and through grass trees, and they reward line choice over raw speed. If the Southern side feels like a modern bike park, Yaugher feels like the trails you grew up on, only better built.

The Super Loop is the backbone, a mix of singletrack and fire trail, and it's a good first lap for working out how the rest of Yaugher hangs together. Foxtail, J2 and Vista are the blue links that let you extend it. Grass Trees is short enough to session and has the most distinctive scenery in the network. Marriners Run is the one people drive down from Melbourne for, and Casper Black is the long, punchy black for when your legs are still fresh.

Four of the nine Yaugher trails are black, which tips this side towards experienced riders. Barre Warre, a 2 km green loop, is the only easy option out here. Newer riders are better off staying south.

The Tiger Loop, a blue gravel and fire-road loop, links the Tiger Rail Trail with the Yaugher network, so you never need to drive between trailheads.

How many trails and kilometres does Forrest have?

Our park page lists 30 trails for Forrest MTB Trails. Visit Great Ocean Road quotes 70 km of singletrack. Both are right. The 30 includes the two pump tracks, the skills park and the Tiger Loop alongside 26 named singletrack trails. Add up the published lengths of those trails and you get just under 71 km: about 41 km on the Yaugher side, where a single trail like the Super Loop can run to 11.5 km, and about 30 km of shorter stacked loops at the Southern Trailhead.

By grade, the 30 break down as 10 green, 13 blue and 6 black, plus the skills park, which is graded beginner to intermediate. That's a healthy intermediate core, a proper beginner zone and enough black to keep a strong rider busy for a weekend.

A second stage of the revitalisation has been talked about for some time, with up to 38 km of new trail, but there's no public timeline. Ride what's there now.

Is Forrest good for beginners?

Yes, as long as you start at the Southern Trailhead. The stacked-loop layout puts Rollercoaster, Sideshow Alley, Stomp Wallaby and the Korac and PBJ jump lines right by the car park, so you can ride a lap, roll back to the trailhead and decide whether to go again or go further. The Forrest Loop is a 4 km green shared trail that drops toward the West Barwon valley and climbs back, which makes a good first proper ride.

The pump tracks are excellent for kids, and the adaptive-friendly track and wider trail design make Forrest one of the better adaptive riding spots in Victoria. Visit Great Ocean Road publishes adaptive rider information on its Ride Forrest page, worth reading before you go.

Skip Yaugher on day one unless you're comfortable on narrow, rooty singletrack. Barre Warre is fine; most of the rest will be a stretch.

When is the best time to ride Forrest?

September through April is the sweet spot. Spring brings tacky dirt and running creeks, and summer is cooler in the Otways than most of Victoria. Forrest is also one of the few Victorian networks worth riding in winter, as long as you pick your side. The Southern gullies hold moisture, so after heavy rain head north: Yaugher's ridge soil drains noticeably faster.

Two other things to watch. On Catastrophic fire-danger days DEECA and Parks Victoria close parks and forests, Forrest included, which can catch you out on a hot January weekend. And late February or early March is Otway Odyssey weekend, when the race (running since 2007) fills the town and sends its courses through both networks. It's a great event, but book accommodation early or pick another weekend.

For storm damage and trail closures, the Forrest Mountain Bike & Cycling Club posts updates and organises volunteer clean-ups. Membership is cheap and helps keep the trails open.

Making Forrest a Great Ocean Road trip

Forrest sits inland from the Great Ocean Road, which makes it an easy add-on to a coastal trip. From Apollo Bay it's roughly 30 to 40 minutes over the Otways on the Forrest–Apollo Bay Road. From Lorne, it's around 45 minutes via Deans Marsh. From Melbourne, allow about two hours via the Princes Highway and Birregurra, and about an hour from Geelong.

A good long weekend goes something like this. Ride Forrest on day one and stay in town, where the Forrest Brewing Company sits a few minutes' pedal from the Southern Trailhead. On day two, ride Yaugher in the morning, then cross the ranges to Apollo Bay for fish and chips and a swim. On the way back toward Melbourne, stop at Anglesea Bike Park, another Great Ocean Road network with 17 trails on our site, for a last session among the coastal scrub.

No bike? Forrest MTB Hire on Grant Street rents mountain bikes and e-bikes, including kids' bikes, by appointment only. Book ahead for long weekends. The Forrest General Store covers coffee and supplies.

If you're comparing Forrest with other Victorian destinations, our best MTB parks in Victoria guide ranks it against Mystic, Warburton, Mt Buller and the rest. If you're planning from Melbourne, MTB long-weekend getaways from Melbourne puts Forrest side by side with Warburton, Baw Baw and Bright, with drive times and costs.

FAQ

How many km of mountain bike trails are in Forrest?

Visit Great Ocean Road quotes 70 km of singletrack across the Forrest network. MTB Trails Australia lists 30 trails for Forrest, including two pump tracks, a skills park and the Tiger Loop. The 26 named singletrack trails add up to just under 71 km, split between the Yaugher side and the Southern Trailhead.

Are the Yaugher and Southern trails separate parks?

No. They're one network with two trailheads about 3 km apart, managed together by DEECA and Colac Otway Shire with the local club. The Tiger Rail Trail links them, and Forrest township sits between, so most riders cover both in a single day without moving the car.

Is Forrest good for beginner mountain bikers?

Yes, at the Southern Trailhead. Green trails like Rollercoaster, Stomp Wallaby and the Forrest Loop start beside the car park, and the skills park has two asphalt pump tracks and a beginner jump line. The Yaugher side is mostly blue and black, so save it for later.

How far is Forrest from Melbourne?

About two hours by car via the Princes Highway and Birregurra, and roughly an hour from Geelong. From the Great Ocean Road, Apollo Bay is about 30 to 40 minutes away over the Otways, and Lorne around 45 minutes via Deans Marsh. There's no public transport to Forrest.

Can you ride Forrest after rain?

Usually, but choose your side. The Yaugher trails sit on free-draining ridge soil and handle wet weather much better than the Southern gullies. Check the Forrest MTB Club's updates for storm damage, and avoid riding trails that are visibly saturated, since ruts last long after the weather clears.

Plan your trip

Start with the Forrest MTB Trails park page for the full trail list, grades and lengths, then check the Southern Network trail guide for trail-by-trail descriptions. To see what else is within reach of the Otways, open the Victorian trail map. Bring enough water for the Super Loop, arrive early on long weekends, and finish the day on the brewery deck.