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The aptly named Creekside Trail travels for 15.8 miles between Dayton and Xenia and follows a nature-filled corridor offering many opportunities for side exploration. Because the trail parallels two streams much of the way, there are also spots to cool off on hot summer days.
About the Route
The trail's western endpoint is located in the popular Eastwood Metropark, which presents endless opportunities for recreation, including boating, fishing, hiking, paddling, and more. As the trail heads south, it passes the busy Airway Rd. where trail users can see the shiny silver hangars of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
Soon after, the trail takes a drastic turn at the T-junction, the trail continues due east. After around 5 miles, the route crosses I-675 via. a very impressive 465-ft restored railroad overpass and then shortly after, the trail passes Fifth Third Gateway Park.
The trail crosses Beavercreek Station, which features the September 11th Memorial of Miami Valley. The nearby E.J. Nutter Park offers baseball diamonds, restrooms, water, parking, and concession stands (open only during games).
As the trail continues towards its eastern endpoint in Xenia, the trail passes the Beavercreek Community Park, William Maxwell Rest Area, and Sol Arnovitz Park. Xenia, where the trail reaches its eastern endpoint, there is a replica railroad depot and museum dedicated to the town's railroad history as well as restrooms and water fountains.
Connections
At the trail's western endpoint in Dayton, it connects to the Mad River Trail.
On the eastern side of Dayton, the trail intersects with the Iron Horse Trail.
In Xenia, the Creekside Trail connects to the Xenia-Jamestown Connector, Little Miami Scenic Trail, Prairie Grass Trail, Towler Road Spur, and the James Ranch Connecting Spur.
The Creekside Trail is part of the Great American Rail Trail, a 3,700-mile route from Washington to Washington D.C.
The Creekside Trail runs between Eastwood Metropark, 4347 Springfield St (Dayton), and Xenia Station, 150 S Miami Ave (Xenia), with parking at either end.
Parking is also available at:
See TrailLink Map for all parking options and detailed directions.
I ride from my house starting at iron horse trail going north across Linden to creekside trail connector and follow it to Xenia Station which gives me a total of 30 miles up and back. The last 2 times I have been on my ride I have seen a total of 6 deer. I seen 4 deer today crossing the bikeway at Factory Rd. I ride this trail 3 times a week for a total of 90 miles. If you have not biked on this trail it is well worth it. The trail is mostly flat with lots of scenery along the way. It is a little crowded on the weekends so I bike m-w-f and just a few walkers and bikers. I will be 70 the end of this month and biking in my opinion is a great way to stay in shape.
This paved rail trail probably gets its name because it follows Shawnee Creek out of Xenia, crosses the Little Miami River around Trebein, parallels the Little Beaver Creek in Beavercreek and eventually meets up with the Mad River in Eastwood Metropark. There are quite a few areas of shade along this route but it is not a constant canopy of shade like many rail trails. In particular, you will find little shade when the trail parallels U.S. Rt. 35. This trail is fairly flat — typical of a rail trail. It is wide and well maintained with very few problems in the pavement like tree root uplifting or undermining erosion.
This trail connects to many other trails in the region. In Xenia, you can connect to the Little Miami Scenic Trail as well as the Prairie Grass Trail both part of the cross-state Ohio to Erie Trail Route. There is also the Xenia-Jamestown Connector that starts at Xenia Station. In addition, there are two lesser local spurs, the Towler Road Spur and the James Ranch Connection Spur, that connect to a local park and the Greene County Fairgrounds, respectfully. As you get closer to the Eastwood Metropark in Riverside, a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, you can connect to the Iron Horse Trail, a Dayton recreational trail. In the Eastwood MetroPark you run into the Mad River Trail which will take you into downtown Dayton (and to many other trail connections) or out to Wright Patterson Air Force Base and the United States Air Force Museum.
I have only two minor complaints about this trail. First, there are 4 road crossings in quick succession as you leave Xenia Station over roads where caution is required. Secondly, I would also suggest making sure that you have plenty to drink on hot summer days as there are few places to find or buy something to drink without going off the trail. There is water and Gatorade available through vending machines at Beavercreek Station (pretty much at the trail’s midpoint) but half the selections in the vending machines there were sold out when I was there early in the day. I’m not sure how often those machines are serviced, so be prepared on really hot days.
Started at xenia station. Rode about 20 miles,10 one way & 10 back.Nice trail,paved.Have a few rode crossing,have to watch because cars have right of the way.Follows stream,but can't see a lot because of all the leaves.Was pretty fat most of it.
Biked from Xenia Station toward Dayton. Largely shaded, at least during our ride. Several busy traffic crossings - be careful! Seemed to be a bit of a gradual upward grade for a good chunk of the ride toward Dayton. You’ll see walkers, people with kids on bikes and strollers, rollerbladers, skateboarders, speedy bikers and more leisurely bikers (like me!). Several decent places to stop and rest or get water. Xenia Station is a great place to pick up several wonderful trails including this one. Only a few spots where the asphalt needed attention.
Very important trail to the different bikeways. It provides a connector between Great Miami Trail and Little Miami Trail. You can take this from downtown Dayton to Xenia to head north to Yellow Springs, south to Cincinnati, or east to Columbus.
I ride this from Beavercreek into Xenia or to Yellow Springs. The opposite direction leads through Eastwood Lake Metropark to Huffman Dam or Downtown Dayton.
It is a very wide trail, but is heavily traveled. Many other cyclists and walkers. Families and slow riders. Take it easy and expect some slow spots.
There are many parks with picnic benches and shelters along the way. Good water supply at Beavercreek Community Park (Factory Road) and Beavercreek Station (N Fairfield).
Not well known, but there is a bit of easy gravel in Creekside Reserve. Traveling from Beavercreek Station, take the side entrance on the right into the reserve. The gravel trail is approx 2 miles to Factory Road.
There are also several busy street crossings. Be careful!
I spent more time off the trail than on while passing though Dayton. Horrible detours down horrible roads with broken glass, tree limbs and rocks. Poorly marked detours. Not for road biking at all. Take three or four spare tubes if you do go....you WILL need them.
I caught the Creekside trail in Xenia after riding the Little Miami Scenic Valley trail from Oregonia. It is very nice, with good pavement, shade, signage, etc. A few more stop signs and busy road crossings than I would like, but I only did 8 miles, so there may be a lot less on down the trail. I wish I could have been in the area longer to explore the rest of this trail!!
Great ride and trail system
Not a continuous trail as you have to cross roadways to get to the "connecting" side, but a very pretty space to be in!
Creekside Trail (#2 of the Miami Valley Trails) A friend and I rode this trail as part of a 460+ mile bicycle trip exploring the trails of Ohio. From Xenia Station, this trail heads northwest to Dayton. It is an easy, beautiful, well marked trail and has a really nice smooth surface. It follows a creek for about 3.5 miles, sometimes has a canopy, sometimes not. At around mile marker 8, there is a station with restrooms and water – Beavercreek Station. There is a statue of a Beaver (Bicycle Beaver) on the grounds. Apparently, there are many statues of Beavers all over Beavercreek. At the intersection of the Iron Horse Trail (at about mile marker 12), the trail turns right and continues North until you get to the Mad River Trail which leads to the National Air Force Museum to the east and to Dayton to the west. We couldn’t find an easy way to ride into Beavercreek for lunch so we waited until we got to the southern edge of Dayton. Well worth the ride and a great way to get from Xenia to Dayton. In fact, this whole network of trails is amazing! A note - we stayed in Fairborn for a night and found it easier and considerably less miles to take a shortcut through Beavercreek neighborhoods to get back on the trail going back to Xenia. It was a wonderful ride through beautiful neighborhoods - highly recommend it!
This was our first trip out of state to bike with friends, and we thoroughly enjoyed this trail, after using the Beavercreek Station as our launching point. The trail from Beavercreek to Dayton is definitely more hilly and goes through a variety of commercial and industrial areas, although it is not too difficult. The trail from Beavercreek to Xenia is relatively flat, and is more "rural". We very much enjoyed being able to stop and watch some of the competition at the drag strip.
Since I ran the eastern portion of this trail one day short of one year ago, I began today's adventure westward from the Beavercreek Station, a beautiful new depot facsimile structure that houses restrooms and refreshment machines. Nice! And a BIG parking lot! Beavercreek is located at Trail Milepost 8, coinciding with the railroad timetable mileage that the Pennsylvania Railroad gave to this segment of its Pittsburgh-St. Louis main line between Xenia and Dayton. This is a "railroad steep" grade up from Beavercreek, then it falls off from Milepost 10 for the rest of the way down to the Iron Horse Trail at Milepost 12.2. This railroad fought hard dragging its freights over this hill out of Dayton, and the single track (highly unusual for the mighty PENNSY!) was, fortunately, always just its "passenger main" (See my review of the Hilliard-Plain City "Heritage Trail" for more on this subject). Amtrak's "National Limited" plied this route until late 1979! Scant few railroad artifacts remain... A few telegraph poles survive, insulated by the swamp and private property they sit in. Only TWO unusual cast concrete mileposts remain in place between Xenia and Dayton... Milepost 5 and Milepost 11. I have never seen square-topped PRR mileposts, with the mile numbers simply painted on. MP11 is badly faded, scarcely any black numerals left, or white background paint. The other "unlikely" surprise is located at Mile 11.7. The yellow metal sign with "A L" westbound is the "Approach Block-Limit" sign for "CLEM", at late railroad (Conrail) time the unmanned "station" location on Clement Hill. In PRR days, there was a wayside "approach" signal here which coincided with an electrically interlocked set of crossovers at "CLEM." "CLEM" is where the track that parallels the southbound Iron Horse Trail diverges from the old PRR main line track. That track is the Pennsy's old Cincinnati, Lebanon, & Northern Railroad that once extended down to the Queen City. Unfortunately, someone painted out the "B" in "ABL" on the sign! Sigh! At the trail "T" at MP12.2, you access the old Baltimore & Ohio main line coming from Chillicothe via Xenia into Dayton (and beyond). The B&O track ran UNDER the now-removed PRR span that topped the stone abutments here. I am sure the B&O couldn't get rid of THIS line into Dayton quickly enough either! The 2.8 miles of B&O north from the trail "T" is ALL downhill, and steep! There are a lot of trail relocations where either private property or washouts apparently took their toll before this trail was developed. But you will encounter several main road crossings where you can access all types of fast food to get that energy back to push you back up the hill! The trail ends at Springfield Street in the Riverview suburb of Dayton. There is a direct connection to the Mad River Trail to take you the rest of the way into Dayton. Both the PRR and the B&O segments of the Creekside Trail are smooth and beautiful, and the 2 miles of Iron Horse Trail south from the "T" is likewise a beauty. Much of the Pennsy's portion of the Creekside Trail is arrow-straight (You can see and feel those hills!), and the trail is wide open to the sky, while the B&O's descent into Riverview is curvy and twisting, under tree canopy, and much forested. That was nice on this unusually hot, 80-degree, all blue sky day in mid-October! Top all of this scenery with the flaming fall foliage, and it makes for one awesome ride!
This trail provides woodland scenery most of time and is a great way to bike from Dayton to Xenia.
"We rode from Xenia Station to Eastwood Park. It is a nice trail. We passed Kil-Kare raceway and Nutter Park. We saw the golden arches by the trail in Dayton, and were surprised to see a McDonald's classic. We stopped for a rest and a drink there. Eastwood Park was very nice. On the way back we stopped at Nutter Park and had lunch. A great day ride."
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