Teen's school project now a popular bike park in Marble Falls

Rhett Jones is a high school senior who built a world-class bike park in Marble Falls.

MARBLE FALLS, Texas (KXAN) — Out in the hills of Marble Falls, there’s a perfect place to ride around on bikes.

Station Mountain Bike Park opened this fall, built on 120 acres with 370 feet of vertical elevation, touting 23 different trails for riders of all skill levels.

Its owner, Rhett Jones, is a high school senior.

"We have been on a gradual upward trajectory as the word of mouth grows and people realize how cool this park is,” he said.

In just three years, Jones went from a teenager learning how to mountain bike during the pandemic to founding one of the largest bike parks in Texas.

"Seeing the fact that I am benefiting the Texas mountain bike community is why I'm doing this,” he said.

The 18-year-old attends Alpha Austin, a specialized school that requires its students to come up with a masterpiece project.

For Jones, this meant building a bike park.

For many months, he spent hundreds of hours creating a pitch deck and financial spreadsheets to support his vision.

"I messaged 123 different ranch owners and everyone said no,” he said. “Handed out envelopes, cold calls, the whole thing and every ranch owner said no."

Jawaan Delaney is a guide at Alpha Austin, who worked closely with Jones throughout the project.

"These investors are looking for someone that they can trust, to put their money into,” he said. “As a kid in high school, that can hard for some people."

Despite overwhelming rejection, Jones never called it quits.

Eventually, the high schooler was able to raise over $350,000 from financial investors. Only $19,000 of that money came through donations from Jones’ family and friends.

Trevor Ellis is an avid mountain biker who took a leap of faith, investing $5,000 into the project.

"To see it all come together, it's just crazy,” he said. “To think that a high schooler could do all this with just enough time and patience."

In order to purchase the property, Jones convinced a real estate investor to buy it for over $3 million. That investor is now leasing the park to the teenager in exchange for equity and monthly payments.

"Every time he got knocked down, every time he got told no, he found another avenue to keep moving forward,” Delaney said. “Because this was his dream."

As his bike park bustles with business every weekend, with tons of travelers rolling in from all around Texas, Jones reflected on the lesson he learned.

"Even when you get told no, you’ve got to persevere and that's just what I did,” he concluded.

Station Mountain Bike Park is open every weekend from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. To purchase a day pass, you can visit its website.