Find the top rated hike trails in New Bern, whether you're looking for an easy short hike trail or a long hike trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a hike trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
Small parking adjacent to new bridge middle school football field. Also park at middle school. 34.75177° N, 77.42777° W
Perfect little path! Parking at the bus stop (1300 N marine blvd) is easiest to get on the trail (lil sketchy for the first mile or so). Theres a park you pass that has restrooms! And trash cans throughout the trail. Def more people biking than walking/running. The mile markers every 0.5 miles are great!!! Can easily get 8 miles going down and back and could probably make it ~10.
The bike path is really a sidewalk down the peninsula. As you ride there are rows of houses to the left obscuring any water view and 3 rows of houses to the right obscuring any ocean view. Every 50 to 100 feet there is a crossroad with a bike stop sign so don’t expect to get any long pedaling in. If you like stop and wait and go crossroads this is for you! The homes you see are typical beach houses, all new builds, nothing spectacular. The business sections look a little run down. It is hardly worth taking the bikes off the car let alone driving all the way there. If you don’t mind leaving your bike and walking thru a beach access, the ocean view is pretty. But this trail can be scratched from your list. Sorry. We wanted to like it.
The actual trail head is just beside the Jacksonville Station (it’s a bus transit station) 1300 N Marine Blvd Great place to park in the long term area and get on. Wonderful benches along the public side of the military base fence all along the trail. We took our four year old the whole way on his bike and enjoyed it. It was work on the way back, but good. Def park at the bus station.
Another place to park and start the trail is at the new (old) Jacksonville Station on Marine Blvd. It has plenty of free parking and the trail passes right in front of the station. From there it is 4.9 miles to another public parking area just outside of one of the Camp Lejeune gates. At about the halfway point, just after crossing on the elevated pedestrian walkway you can take the side trail which takes you app. 3 miles to the Memorial Gardens . This whole section of the trail is well paved and well maintained.
Nice pathway along Tar River. Good historic markers
Start your ride or walk at the Memorials Parking Lot (do not ride bikes in the memorials) proceed on the bike path and board walks approx 2.5 miles to the tunnel on left, go through and join Rail Trail path, turn right an go 3.3 miles to Trail head, turn and return, go past the the tunnel & over bridge, proceed follow the trail all the way to the old town, follow to Riverwalk Park, and follow Bike signs to the riverfront an continue following signs past Stuggeon City Enviro education Ctr, you can go in if you wish, continue following bike path signs to Wilson Bay Park for a brief stop, then continue back to the Memorials parking lot, total miles, approx 17 miles.
Wonderful paved trail. Did see a Copperhead on the trail!!
We rented 5 bikes from Beach Wheels and started riding from the first beach access off of Ocean Dr. We didn’t feel comfortable riding on the road, so Bryan at Beach Wheels was kind enough to drop the bikes off there so we could ride on the bike path. We took the path all the way down to Plaza Mexican in Emerald Isle and had lunch. Then we biked down to Emerald Isle Woods where we took the bikes down to the water and enjoyed the view. Around 3:00 we turned around and biked our way back to Sweet Spot for ice cream. We were pretty tired at that point so we biked our way back to car.
Overall it was a very enjoyable bike ride. One thing I wish we had know is that the path is mostly downhill as you bike your way towards Emerald Isle which means it’s uphill as you’re coming back towards the car. We biked around 20 miles in total so the last 5-6 miles we’re pretty rough as we were very tired! Also, there’s a good bit of crosswalk traffic so be very cautious of cars as your cross.
The trail was nice, comfortable & picturis.The East end of trail starts uphill so plenty of coasting time to west end.
Crosses a few busy streets around Greenville but most of it is gorgeous. A little sandy for a road bike though
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (a non-profit) and we need your support!
Scan the QR code to get TrailLink on your phone
Map Search
