A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Tune into Visit Bentonville’s podcast series for a weekly update on all things Bentonville, Arkansas. Hosted by Beth Bobbitt, you’ll hear captivating stories and updates from our city—connecting you with the locals that make this town worth visiting.
A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Outdoor Camps + Recreation in Bentonville, AR
Looking for outdoor adventures in Bentonville? In this episode of A New American Town, we chat with Kyla Templeton from Bike School Bentonville Whitney Selk and Lane Berrey from the Peel Compton Foundation about the exciting spring and summer camps happening in town! From mountain bike skills classes to guided rides, archery, and wetland tours, there’s something for everyone—kids and adults alike!
Start planning your next outdoor experience!
Bike School Bentonville: https://bikeschoolbentonville.com/
Peel Compton Events: https://www.peelcompton.org/
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Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, beth Bobbitt, and today we're going to dive deep into the spring and summer camps for the whole family from Bike School Bentonville and Peel Compton Foundation, from outdoor rec, mountain biking and more for all ages. You'll hear directly from people who help create these amazing adventures right here in Bentonville. Welcome to the podcast Kyla Lane Whitney. Thank you all for being here.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah thanks for having us. So, Kyla, let's start with you. Tell us a little bit about Bike School Bentonville. The name is pretty descriptive, but I'd love to hear about just general offerings, how it came to be all of?
Kyla :that, yeah, we do mountain bike skills instruction and kind of for all ages. We specialize, I would say, in kids but we're expanding kind of as we speak into adult programming as well, as we speak into adult programming as well, and really the rationale behind it is that mountain biking is a skills based endeavor and when I was, I was the NICA league director before this and I had the benefit of having all these wonderful skills instructors come to me and help me, because I wasn't a mountain biker before we started NICA here and and so come to me and help me, because I wasn't a mountain biker before we started NICA here, and so I had all these coaches that came and helped me learn how to mountain bike. But not a lot of people understand that a little bit of skills instruction can really make a huge difference in your experience on the trails. And so we have this company and it's to help people have more fun on the trails through the mountain bike skills instruction.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah, and what is the approach or the coaching philosophy for you all?
Kyla :You know, the very best coaches are like students of the people that they're coaching, so kind of our whole philosophy is built around that and around how, paying attention to who they are, where they are now, where they want to be, and then being able to tailor the instruction to the person that's in the class or the camp or getting a lesson. I love that.
Beth Bobbitt :Thank you for sharing. Yeah, lane Whitney, same question. Tell us a little bit about Peel Compton Foundation, especially because you all have grown and have enveloped so many more offerings and spaces in the last few years. So, like set us straight, how many different spaces and offerings are there right now?
Lane:Yeah, so Peel Compton Foundation is unique. We have several different properties. It's technically four, but we have a fifth. So we have the Peel Museum and Botanical Garden, we have Compton Gardens and Arboretum, kohler Mountain Bike Preserve and then Osage Park and then within Osage Park we have the Quiver Archery Range.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah, and congratulations on winning the .
Whitney:Yes, thank you so much. That was amazing, yeah, yeah, and the cool thing about our you know, four slash five properties is that our mission is to bring the community together through nature, education, recreation and preservation, and each of our properties encompass those values. And so you know, whether you're looking for a tour at a museum and you want to learn more about history, or you're wanting to get on the trails, or, you know, you just want to hang out and soak up the environment, you know we've got all of that. Yeah, it's so special.
Beth Bobbitt :We're so lucky to be here and thank you all for what you do. So we're so lucky to be here and thank you all for what you do. So, Kyla, let's jump back to you. If someone was planning a trip to Bentonville, what do they need to know about you? Know how to prepare, when to book private lessons, group rides, what's available for travelers.
Kyla :Well, from a bike school's perspective, we have spring break camps and we have summer camps.
Kyla :Basically, like anytime the kids are not in school, we try to have a camp around it, and what's awesome about one of our camps is you drop the kids off. If you're a parent, you drop the kids off and then you can go enjoy your own ride on the trails or have a little bit of time apart trails or have a little bit of time apart. You know, I know I have two kids, so being on vacation is not always super relaxing when you have young ones, and so so being having a little bit of time to yourself is a really awesome thing, and you know and trust that the kids are going to be in good hands. Or you could also get a lesson while the kids are getting a lesson. You know, I don't think there's any better place to learn how to mountain bike than Bentonville, and so we have coaches. You know we have more coaches than are just coaching the camps, and so we can also get you a private lesson at the same time. Or, you know, maybe you're not a parent, we can do that too.
Beth Bobbitt :And f I do want a lesson with my child
Kyla :Yeah, we can do that. It's great to have a lesson with your kid, because then you're going to be learning kind of the same things. Now the kids might pick up on it a little faster than the adults. I mean, sometimes it kind of it just depends. You know, anytime you have multiple people in a lesson there's, you know, there's differences in learning speeds, but we have coaches that are experts at kind of managing that.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah, that sounds fun. So spring break, summer camps and then ongoing classes and clinics, right?
Kyla :Yeah, we do classes for the locals here too, that kind of spread out over time. There's a lot of benefit to spreading your learning out over weeks and weeks rather than just concentrating it. We also do private lessons, but we also can do guided rides for families or for groups of people or for an individual that comes in and you know our trails are awesome and sometimes you know a trail might be better riding it this way than that, or you've seen something on YouTube, right, and you want to see this feature, being able to make the most of your time. A guided ride is great for that.
Kyla :They can tailor the experience to your level and what you want to see and do.
Beth Bobbitt :There's also just some, I guess, benefit of getting that orientation to our trail system. It can be intimidating for people that aren't here, or even residents, you know. For me, so I love that guided tour option. Me, so I love that guided tour option. Lane Whitney. What might a visitor expect or how should they plan for a spring visit in terms of all the various programs and camps happening?
Lane:Yeah, ours is kind of set up the same way, so you can enjoy our properties for free, kind of do your own walking around. Coler has has its own, you know, walking trail. You can get a coffee at airship, so you could do kind of a do your own thing. We also have classes, you know ongoing classes, one-off classes all the time, and then we have longer series as well, big events, and then we also have guided rides.
Whitney:Yeah, and I think it's really cool to see that as a community, we're offering guided rides, especially because there's going to be trail systems that some people want to do.
Whitney:You know, from Bentonville to Fayetteville or from Bentonville to Bella Vista, and you know Kohler is really unique and it can be really intimidating. Coler in in particular, it's 300 acres, there's 20 plus miles of trails, yeah, and so you know our two certified, you know, instructors. They want to also provide that experience, and so it's just really cool to see that there are, you know, different areas in our community that are coming together to provide people with a similar experience, and so you know we, you can, you know you can email us for guided rides. You can fill out the form on our website. While kids are in bicycle, Bentonville during camps, join guided rides with our, you know, certified instructors and they can gear it towards anything and they focus, you know, mainly on Coler, but they can take you Coler to any trails as well. But I love seeing that. You know everyone in the community wants to provide that experience.
Kyla :And it's not a far ride to Slaughterpin to. Back 40, or Little Sugar. It's all really integrated and cut hollow.
Lane:A fun thing for our visitors too is our campground. So at Kohler we have a campground that's renowned, you know, heated and cooled bathroom, like we have those amenities for you, five stars.
Kyla :Yeah, five stars. The nicest showers you'll ever experience in a campground, so that's right on our property.
Lane:So if you feel like camping out, we have van spaces and tent spaces. So, if you want to do that as a family, you can do that all together as well.
Beth Bobbitt :We're doing it, but we're booking our campsite because it also just makes you feel a little bit more, I don't know nurtured and safe, if you're within this park where you know there's amenities and bathrooms and other people and it's also just gorgeous. Definitely yeah, a little oasis, just outside of town.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah, totally Want to see more of what's currently happening in Bentonville. Follow us on social media at Visit Bentonville to stay in the know about restaurants, events, things to do in town and more. We are here for you, whether you're planning a trip or looking to move here. So let's talk about special events. You all have your world-famous native plant sale Osage After Dark some races.
Lane:Yeah, I mean it's fun because there's something for everyone. So, like we were saying with the history or if you wanted to be more outdoors, it's kind of up to you. So, yeah, we have our spring native tree and plant sale happening at Compton gardens, all grown by our horticulture team there. And then we have Osage park after dark, our fundraiser for Osage park, and that one's fun because it's a little bit more educational. You get a tour around the Wetlands and we'll have a panel of experts, um, coming out as well.
Whitney:Um and then, and a beaver expert. The beaver expert is flying in.
Kyla :Yeah, we're really excited are there beavers at Osage oh?
Beth Bobbitt :yeah we have a beaver family so will they do tours, beaver tours, what's happening there? We'll do general wetland tours, so you'll see the beavers, you'll'll see the dams.
Whitney:Yeah.
Lane:Yeah, it's awesome, so there'll be a lot to see, and then we have our noon to moon race coming up as well.
Whitney:Yeah, noon to moon is really cool. It's our annual mountain bike fundraising event, and so it'll take place on May 3rd and that's when the six hour race will happen and you can team. It's really cool. It's an all-day fun event. There's food, beverages, dj, all the things. Something cool we've added last year that we're going to incorporate this year is the kids race on Friday, the night before, and so your kids can do a fun race, they can feel like they're a part of the fun, a part of the action, and then the parents can also participate in the kids race on their kids' bikes.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah, so yeah, and as someone that is not great on a mountain bike, I will say that I've had so much fun as a spectator too.
Whitney:Yeah it's so encouraging especially, you know, if you have taken these classes and you know a lot of bicycle benevolent, I think you guys participate, you know, in the moon and it's just cool to see how the skills progress into such a fun race as well. And it's competitive but it's fun.
Beth Bobbitt :You know, we love it, we love it. Amazing Kyla, what do you have coming up?
Kyla :You've talked a little bit about the ongoing things, but anything special you want to plug, you know we're really excited about women's clinics that we're launching this Saturday. We're going to repeat three different clinics every month. The second Saturday of the month, we're doing a foundational skills class, and then the third Saturday of the month we're doing a berms class intro to berms. And then the fourth Saturday of the month is the intro to jumps class.
Beth Bobbitt :Okay, so what are the ?
Kyla :You know I would say the first two are suitable for beginner intermediate. Probably once you get to advanced you're pretty comfortable with berms, I would say. But foundational skills are always good to refresh. And then you know we have a lot of berms everywhere on our trails and so it's one of those things that becomes kind of a sticky place for some people, especially as you're learning how to mountain bike. It's like oh, that berm's scary. So those who are really good for beginner intermediate, jumps would be probably more of like a solid intermediate, like when you you know a lot of people, they either want to get air or they don't want to get air.
Kyla :Um, I actually don't like to get a lot of air. Um, I know how to do it but it's not how I like to ride. But some people like, from the first time they get on a bike they want to get air, and so being able to know how to do that properly, so I would say kind of beginner plus to intermediate is where the intro to jumps class will.
Beth Bobbitt :Well, it sounds fun in theory.
Kyla :Yeah, yeah, it's really fun.
Beth Bobbitt :Okay, well, let's switch gears. Some wrap up questions. We ask all of our guests really just to get to know the area a little bit more and you personally, what you've gravitated to. So, Whitney, let's start with you. Any core Bentonville memories? Tell us how long you've been here.
Whitney:I moved here in 2021; Texas transplant they're all coming. But, and I've loved it ever since, you know, it's just so. It's such a natural space that you, honestly, can't really find in anywhere else and, um, it's so unique. You've got the Buffalo. You've got, you know, the little oasis is outside of Bentonville and Bella Vista, all the things, um. So I think a core memory for me is just when I did start this job. I got exposure to so many beautiful places and hidden gems and everything, and so I'm just really lucky to keep exploring those hidden gems just all over the place. So, like Coler, was one of my first hidden gems that I thought I found.
Whitney:Turns out, I was going to start working for the foundation that operates Coler, so yeah amazing Lane.
Beth Bobbitt :Lane what about you?
Lane:I'll plug another one of our properties. One of my core memories is I moved here not that long ago. So I've lived in Northwest Arkansas for a while but moved to Bentonville just last summer. But I've really enjoyed the Quiver. You know you can go bowling, you can go to Topgolf, that kind of thing. But you know archery is so unique I don't think I would have had the opportunity to try something like that anywhere else. So probably shooting my first arrow out of a bow would be a core memory in Bentonville for sure.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah, my daughter's hooked. We're looking at the camps.
Lane:It's something you didn't know you'd like until you really give it a try.
Kyla :And then it's like whoa, this feels good to hit the target. Yeah, absolutely. What do you think, kylie? Well, I moved here 20 years ago in May.
Kyla :I've been here a long time and, yeah, it's changed a lot since then. I would say, if we're talking about core Bentonville memories when my kids were younger my kids are 11 and 13 now but when they were probably four and six, five and seven, we would ride up the street to Park Springs Park and go play in the creek down there and it was just like this it's beautiful down there. It's really different since their tornado, Um, and it's actually not open right now.
Whitney:So I don't.
Kyla :I don't know when it's opening, but, um, it's a beautiful place and um, and there's a creek. So the kids were totally engaged, like you know, tromping through the water and exploring and being out in nature and um, and we could ride our bikes there from our house, and so it was. It was just like a place where I don't have like one particular time, but like we would go there really every week or every other week just to kind of get out of the heat, cause you go down in that Valley.
Kyla :I think we call it a holler. It's just a beautiful place. So I'm looking forward to the things blooming again to see what I think I mean. It'll be different, but it'll still be beautiful. Yeah, absolutely.
Beth Bobbitt :I love Park Street because the equipment's minimal. I mean it's all about the natural surroundings and you know getting to explore. So one more question local crush, a secret spot, or you know a restaurant or a place that's just really special to you, that maybe our listeners don't know about Go back around.
Whitney:Yeah, I'm gonna say the meadow at Compton Gardens, compton Gardens is just off of the square, super easy to walk to, but the meadow at Compton Gardens.
Whitney:Compton Gardens is just off of the square, super easy to walk to, but the meadow is just off the Greenway and it has the Oz Art heart hand sculpture. I love that place and I actually got engaged there, so it is really special to me and my husband and so I love it. It's beautiful and when the coneflowers the native coneflowers bloom, it's just. It's such a beautiful spot to just like have a little coffee or a little snack or something, nobody's ever said that, that yeah that's beautiful I love that one. It's very peaceful.
Lane:Lane mine is the Peel Museum store just because you know we have Walmart, we have other kind of gift stores, but people don't really think of the Peel Museum store. Special gifts, um, I've gotten like cutting boards and candles and all kinds of like fun. Everything's local, so it's all local goods and gifts and some of my favorite gifts I've given, given people, even for christmas, have been from there, so it's definitely a place to check out yeah, kylie, what's your spot?
Kyla :I didn't even know there's exactly exactly.
Whitney:Come by come by best hot honey out there yeah, there's some fun stuff, okay, fun plug, yeah, do it.
Kyla :Um, I you know I I'm gonna pick something outside because I just love to be outdoors. Um, I think the the there. You might think they're in Bella Vista, but in in Bentonville, in north North Bentonville, um it, it's called Lake Bella Vista. It's not really a lake, it's more of a creek, but there's some trails up there, there's a walking path, the Veterans Park is up there and then Blowing Springs. You can get a picnic before you head up there and have a picnic by the springs in Blowing Springs. I just I think that area of Bentonville slash Bella Vista, like far South Bella Vista, far North Bentonville is just it's, it's beautiful. My kids would spend hours at Blowing Springs. They're like, they like to be outside too.
Beth Bobbitt :So yeah, amazing. Well, I'm really want to get outside now. Wetted the palette, so, uh, any last minute plugs.
Lane:How do we find out more about Peel Compton Foundation? Yeah, I would say, go to peelcomptonorg and then just check out our social media for all of our properties. We're we're always online, always posting what we're up to. Yeah.
Whitney:We've got a calendar that is also on our website Um find any of our events, our free programs, our programs that are, you know, anywhere from $20 to $100, depending on you know skills or you know classes or anything like that. So, yeah, check out the calendar for all the fun spring and summer updates. Definitely Amazing, will do.
Kyla :Bike School Bentonville. Our story is the same. Bikeschoolbentonvillecom has all of our classes and events and our social media at Bikeschool Bentonville on Instagram, Facebook. I don't think we do X.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah, okay, okay. Good, let's stick to the basics, yeah.
Kyla :Instagram's probably the most updated.
Beth Bobbitt :Well, thank you all for coming on. We appreciate your time.
Whitney:Thank, you so much. Thank you so much for having us. This was a fun time.
Beth Bobbitt :As always, Visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our new American Town. Give us a follow on social media, Sign up for the newsletter and check out our website at visitbentonvillecom. Thanks for listening.