The Blue River Rail Trail meanders along the course of the Big Blue River, in places meeting the water's edge and in other places straying from its banks. The rail-trail stretches between Marysville and Oketo, and there are plans to extend it farther north of Oketo to the Kansas–Nebraska state line and beyond as part of the
Homestead Trail extension.
The trail passes among farmland and includes pleasant river views, wooded stretches, a covered bridge and limestone cliffs. On the Marysville end, the 2-mile section between Jayhawk Road and Harvest Road is paved. Between Harvest Road and Frontier Road—a 2.9-mile segment—the surface is crushed limestone. Here you'll encounter a canyon with 20-foot walls and a bridge offering more scenic views of the cliffs and roiling tributary of the Big Blue River.
Between Frontier Road and Deer Trail Road (in the farming village of Marietta) the trail is about 2.3 miles of unimproved surface and crosses a restored trestle with a steel-grid walkway. The remaining 1.5 miles to Oketo also has an unfinished surface.
To access the Blue River Rail-Trail, you can park at the following locations where the trail intersects the roads:
*Jayhawk Rd. & Harvest Rd. in Marysville
*Frontier Rd. in Hull
*Deer Trail Rd. in Marietta
*Mill St. in Oketo
05/17/13 trail is only 5 miles long for biking, after that the gravel is too large to safely ride on. not worth a long drive to get there. scenery is so so and could not find a current up date on the trail length.
A very enjoyable ride, on May 15, 2013. I rode it as an out-n-back, starting from and returning to Oketo, Kansas. I don't recommend that, since it means the first three and last three miles of the ride are on railbed ballast and most uncomfortable to ...