Find the top rated trails in Albion, whether you're looking an easy walking path or a long bike trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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As its name implies, the Northwest Portage Bikeway traverses the northwestern neighborhoods of Portage, a city in the Kalamazoo metro area. The 3-mile paved trail begins just south of Crossroads Mall,...
On the east end of Portage, this paved pathway begins near the intersection of S. Sprinkle Road and Zylman Avenue. On the south side of Zylman Avenue, you can easily reach Ramona Park, which offers a...
The Baw Beese Trail, named in honor of a former chief of the local Potawatomi population, connects the Michigan communities of Hillsdale and Jonesville. The paved trail is a model of efficient land...
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The Kiwanis Trail occupies an old railroad bed between Adrian and the southern edge of Tecumseh. The trail is currently the only open component of a much longer proposed regional greenway trail. In...
Lovers Lane Bikeway provides a paved, north-south route through the southern Michigan city of Portage. The paved pathway parallels the east side of Lovers Lane for 2 miles with a wide grassy median...
The Falling Waters Trail is a 10.4-mile asphalt rail-trail that links the town of Concord with the city of Jackson. The trail follows the old rail bed of the former Michigan Central Railroad, and...
The Litchfield Nature Trail meanders through scenic property owned by the City of Litchfield, in some places adjacent to the St. Joseph (St. Joe) River. At one point, the trail passes through...
The Sycamore Trail, which opened in October 2014, provides an important connection between two other trails in Delhi Charter Township, on the south end of Lansing. At the trail’s northern end, it...
The Valhalla Trail runs for just over a mile in Delhi Charter Township, a southern suburb of Lansing. Its northern half is wooded and winds through Valhalla Park, which offers a swimming beach,...
The Vicksburg Trailway runs for nearly 2 miles on a former railroad corridor in a small village south of Kalamazoo. The paved trail is surrounded by dense woodlands for all but the southernmost...
Tradition says that Michigan has 11,000 lakes. The eastern section of the Lakelands Trail State Park passes through a chain of them as it rolls from the town of Hamburg and Lakeland to Munith some 26...
Romence Road Bikeway is a utilitarian east-west route across Portage, a city just south of Kalamazoo. The west end of the paved pathway begins at Westnedge Avenue, adjacent to a shopping center...
The Border-to-Border Trail is a work in progress, which when complete, will stretch across Washtenaw County from its border with Livingston County in the northwest to Wayne County in the east. Much of...
The Granger Meadows Park Trail forms a loop around the 76-acre park in DeWitt Township, just north of Lansing. The park was built and donated by Granger III and Associates, a local trash and recycling...
The Ram Trail is a close to 2-mile trail beginning at Holt High School where there is access to tennis courts, soccer fields, softball and baseball diamonds and playgrounds. The trail runs eastward...
The Northern Tier Trail winds through East Lansing on the outskirts of Michigan's capital, offering miles of paved pathway through tree-lined areas and wetlands. The 10-foot-wide trail connects...
The Wabash Cannonball Trail in northwest Ohio is actually two trails in one: the north fork runs east–west for 46 miles and the south fork makes up the balance of this 63-mile trail. The trails...
The Portage Bikeway trail system is a 17.5-mile network of multi-use trails throughout the city of Portage, south of Kalamazoo. The 4-mile segment through Portage Creek Bicentennial Park is cleared of...
The pleasant little Albion River Trail runs along the south bank of the Kalamazoo River through the town of Albion. The trail runs between McClure Riverfront Park on the west end and Victory Park on...
The Lansing River Trail traces the course of three waterways for more than 25 miles across Michigan’s capital city. Visiting all four main points of the compass in Lansing, the trail provides a route...
For more than 4 miles, Angola's trail winds through the heart of the city, which sits in the northeast corner of Indiana, just 10 miles from the bordering states of Michigan and Ohio. The paved...
If you’re looking for a rustic escape form the din of everyday life, consider the Calhoun County Trailway. The Trailway weaves through three of the county’s four parks. The 5.3-mile trail kicks off...
The Battle Creek Linear Park trail encompasses nearly 26 miles of connected trails in Battle Creek. Residents use the loop trails to put some snap, crackle, and pop in their exercise routines, while...
The Ram Trail is a close to 2-mile trail beginning at Holt High School where there is access to tennis courts, soccer fields, softball and baseball diamonds and playgrounds. The trail runs eastward...
Lovers Lane Bikeway provides a paved, north-south route through the southern Michigan city of Portage. The paved pathway parallels the east side of Lovers Lane for 2 miles with a wide grassy median...
The Wabash Cannonball Trail in northwest Ohio is actually two trails in one: the north fork runs east–west for 46 miles and the south fork makes up the balance of this 63-mile trail. The trails...
When complete, the Paul Henry - Thornapple Trail will be a 42-mile, multi-use recreation trail, extending from Grand Rapids to Vermontville; it eventually may be extended to Jackson. The trail is...
The Baw Beese Trail, named in honor of a former chief of the local Potawatomi population, connects the Michigan communities of Hillsdale and Jonesville. The paved trail is a model of efficient land...
On the east end of Portage, this paved pathway begins near the intersection of S. Sprinkle Road and Zylman Avenue. On the south side of Zylman Avenue, you can easily reach Ramona Park, which offers a...
Shaver Road Bikeway begins on the south side of E. Centre Avenue in the southern Michigan city of Portage. On the north side of the roadway, a connection to the 4-mile Portage Creek Bicentennial Trail...
As its name implies, the Northwest Portage Bikeway traverses the northwestern neighborhoods of Portage, a city in the Kalamazoo metro area. The 3-mile paved trail begins just south of Crossroads Mall,...
The Lansing River Trail traces the course of three waterways for more than 25 miles across Michigan’s capital city. Visiting all four main points of the compass in Lansing, the trail provides a route...
hen complete, the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail will run for 35 miles throughout Kalamazoo County. Currently, the trail consists of two continuous segments connected by bike lanes: one segment extends...
The Northern Tier Trail winds through East Lansing on the outskirts of Michigan's capital, offering miles of paved pathway through tree-lined areas and wetlands. The 10-foot-wide trail connects...
The Valhalla Trail runs for just over a mile in Delhi Charter Township, a southern suburb of Lansing. Its northern half is wooded and winds through Valhalla Park, which offers a swimming beach,...
The Portland Riverwalk ushers visitors around the charming town of Portland on 9 miles of paved trail. Also known as the Rivertrail Linear Park, the trail connects a handful of parks, scenic views...
Romence Road Bikeway is a utilitarian east-west route across Portage, a city just south of Kalamazoo. The west end of the paved pathway begins at Westnedge Avenue, adjacent to a shopping center...
The new Riverbend Preserve in southern Washtenaw County features 58 acres of wetlands on both sides of the Raisin River. The area is a common resting place for migratory birds on their trek across the...
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Though the Millennium Trail runs just over a mile, it connects several attractions in the southern Michigan city of Portage. Its east end connects to the scenic Portage Creek Bicentennial Trail,...
The Portage Bikeway trail system is a 17.5-mile network of multi-use trails throughout the city of Portage, south of Kalamazoo. The 4-mile segment through Portage Creek Bicentennial Park is cleared of...
The Falling Waters Trail is a 10.4-mile asphalt rail-trail that links the town of Concord with the city of Jackson. The trail follows the old rail bed of the former Michigan Central Railroad, and...
The Sycamore Trail, which opened in October 2014, provides an important connection between two other trails in Delhi Charter Township, on the south end of Lansing. At the trail’s northern end, it...
The Border-to-Border Trail is a work in progress, which when complete, will stretch across Washtenaw County from its border with Livingston County in the northwest to Wayne County in the east. Much of...
The pleasant little Albion River Trail runs along the south bank of the Kalamazoo River through the town of Albion. The trail runs between McClure Riverfront Park on the west end and Victory Park on...
hen complete, the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail will run for 35 miles throughout Kalamazoo County. Currently, the trail consists of two continuous segments connected by bike lanes: one segment extends...
Romence Road Bikeway is a utilitarian east-west route across Portage, a city just south of Kalamazoo. The west end of the paved pathway begins at Westnedge Avenue, adjacent to a shopping center...
The Litchfield Nature Trail meanders through scenic property owned by the City of Litchfield, in some places adjacent to the St. Joseph (St. Joe) River. At one point, the trail passes through...
The Kiwanis Trail occupies an old railroad bed between Adrian and the southern edge of Tecumseh. The trail is currently the only open component of a much longer proposed regional greenway trail. In...
The Valhalla Trail runs for just over a mile in Delhi Charter Township, a southern suburb of Lansing. Its northern half is wooded and winds through Valhalla Park, which offers a swimming beach,...
The Main Trail runs for just 0.5 mile along an east–west corridor through the Whitehouse Nature Center. The trail links a series of loop trails through the nature center and begins at the visitor...
On the east end of Portage, this paved pathway begins near the intersection of S. Sprinkle Road and Zylman Avenue. On the south side of Zylman Avenue, you can easily reach Ramona Park, which offers a...
The Portage Bikeway trail system is a 17.5-mile network of multi-use trails throughout the city of Portage, south of Kalamazoo. The 4-mile segment through Portage Creek Bicentennial Park is cleared of...
The Battle Creek Linear Park trail encompasses nearly 26 miles of connected trails in Battle Creek. Residents use the loop trails to put some snap, crackle, and pop in their exercise routines, while...
As its name implies, the Northwest Portage Bikeway traverses the northwestern neighborhoods of Portage, a city in the Kalamazoo metro area. The 3-mile paved trail begins just south of Crossroads Mall,...
When complete, the Paul Henry - Thornapple Trail will be a 42-mile, multi-use recreation trail, extending from Grand Rapids to Vermontville; it eventually may be extended to Jackson. The trail is...
The Vicksburg Trailway runs for nearly 2 miles on a former railroad corridor in a small village south of Kalamazoo. The paved trail is surrounded by dense woodlands for all but the southernmost...
The Lansing River Trail traces the course of three waterways for more than 25 miles across Michigan’s capital city. Visiting all four main points of the compass in Lansing, the trail provides a route...
For more than 4 miles, Angola's trail winds through the heart of the city, which sits in the northeast corner of Indiana, just 10 miles from the bordering states of Michigan and Ohio. The paved...
The new Riverbend Preserve in southern Washtenaw County features 58 acres of wetlands on both sides of the Raisin River. The area is a common resting place for migratory birds on their trek across the...
The Baw Beese Trail, named in honor of a former chief of the local Potawatomi population, connects the Michigan communities of Hillsdale and Jonesville. The paved trail is a model of efficient land...
We live just 1/2 mile south of the South Fork. I run the trail most every day. It's always in great shape. In winter the trail is cleared off before the roads are. Well maintained and popular trail. Just have to be careful crossing the roads. The trail crosses many busy roads so watch for traffic, especially crossing State Route 295 (both forks cross this road). Enjoy!
We started at Oak Openings and rode east over US24, past the battlegrounds and on a ways before turning back and following the south fork to the end, then back past the parking area to the west ending point before returning to the Jeep just after dark. This trail says it closes at dark, a drawback for us as we would have put in a few more hours of riding if allowed, start early!
Mostly a smooth trail, some slightly washboard areas that were only minimally noticed, trail is in fairly good shape and a joy to ride!! We will return. The one real grip is all the stops every half to mile due to raod crossings, nothing major!
Since I was visiting Lansing for a few days, I had the chance to go out and ride what I will call the "southern branch" of the trail system where Aurelius Road crosses over the Red Cedar River and goes over to Waverly Road. From my starting point at Municipal Park on E Michigan Avenue, it ended up being about an 18 mile round trip. The good news is that once you turn south at Aurelius Road, the trail is very Smooth over its entire length. The first 5 miles or so meander through some nice forested urban areas and parks, then it gives way to basically running down a power line corridor, which was far less scenic and pleasant.
If you're looking for a smooth trail, you'll rather enjoy this segment. Save the trail segment that runs east/west through the downtown area for a bike that handles rough trail better.
I have ridden it twice and enjoyed the natural setting, many wild flowers and butterflies, and varying terrain of this moderately curvy and hilly path. Mountain bike or at hybrid suggested due to fine gravel surface, so slow down in curves, some mildly washed out sandy areas, and on board walks when damp. The Ott Biological Preserve has separate foot trails and the North Country Trail also separates for a while, which otherwise follows the trailway. Most of the trail is wooded and shady. Historic Bridge Park at the southern end has a nice picnic area, canoe launch, and playground.
This is really a very nice urban trail, but if you have a choice, you may enjoy it more on a mountain bike or hybrid with shocks since the Lansing segment I did had a rather coarse texture over a majority of the 18 miles I did. I used a single speed track bike with fairly narrow/high pressure tires, which was okay, but I'd use a different bike next time.
The signage for the Lansing segment I rode was quite good, and meandering along the river was very nice. There are a fair number of wooded bridge decks that are fun, but a little bumpy.
The East Lansing segment that runs through the MSU campus and is much smoother, but there only seems to be pavement indicators for the bike lane/trail, and not the signs like they do in Lansing. I was probably not paying attention and meandered away from the trail a few times.
Great trail, but be sure to pick the right bike to do it.
My husband and rode this trail for the first time and loved it. It amazes me that people call a trail such as this boring. It is beautiful nature----loved the first part out of the Kalamazoo trailhead---pristine and full of lush trees. We rode 10 miles and turned around and saw rolling landscapes and agriculture. Gentle incline but be prepared that it is a gravel trail. After the first mile it became hardened and easier. Also---keep your heads up for the crossroads. Next time we will start in South Haven. Beautiful and we are very appreciative that we are provided with trails such as this to keep us off the road.
Just rode this for the first time started in wauseon and finished in oak openings 35 Miles round trip. Was a great ride can't wait to try the south fork
My wife and I visited Battle Creek for the first time solely to ride this trail Sunday. Even after reading some reviews and seeing "poorly marked" noted several times, we decided since it was relatively close to home (75 minutes or so) we'd give it a try. We started at Friendship Park downtown since it looked like it was smack in the middle of the trail, but when we got to the park there wasn't a trail sign or marking to be found, at least that we could see. Most of the downtown area is closed on Sunday, it was like a ghost town at noon. We drove around for 30 minutes following both Google Maps and the map found on this site, and finally figured out where the trail was (we thought). We unloaded and started riding, following what we thought was the Linear Park trail, only find that after a mile or so of turning around and riding in circles, it was not even the actual trail. Once we found the proper path, the ride was choppy in the downtown area... lots of stops for cross streets, still having to stop and check street names and such because the trail was not marked at all in town. Riding out of town we started feeling much better about it. It follows the river for a ways and the scenery is very nice. We got to a sports complex that we vaguely identified on the trail map, saw the dotted line for the trail on the map, but again there were no markings at the outer edge of the park that identified where the trail continued for us to do the entire loop. We ended up doubling back to where we started and then rode out a ways in the other direction. Again, the actual Linear Park trail veered off on a city street to loop around at the other end of town, but there were no signs at all noting that. We ended up continuing for about 3 miles on a trail that connected to someplace else and had no way of knowing how to get back to the Linear Park path without doubling back. So again, we had to double back and try to find where the turn was for the Linear Park loop. Once we found it, we again were happy with the scenery, and the trail goes through the Leila Arboretum which offers some more challenging terrain. But soon after that the trail again goes through residential areas with sidewalks in every direction at the intersections, and very little signage to indicate which direction to go to stay on the actual bike path. It's almost embarrassing to note that the perimeter loop is supposedly 10.5 miles.... with all the doubling back and circling around to try to stay on track, we rode over 25 miles. No, not kidding. No, it wasn't on purpose. No, we're not idiots, either, just determined to find the whole trail. :)
So all in all, it was a disappointment. This "trail" has some great potential, but there are a lot of things working against it, and most of those could be avoided or easily corrected. Here are some of our observations:
1) The trail is badly overgrown in most of the areas outside the downtown area.
2) There is a serious need for more signage and trail markings. Seriously. If you don't know this city, it's nearly impossible to follow the trail at times.
3) The trail crosses several busy roads with no warning signs for cars, no way to signal when you cross. It's like playing Frogger on a Trek hybrid. It's downright dangerous at 2 crossings in particular.
4) When in residential areas with sidewalks in all 4 directions at intersections, your best bet is to follow the sidewalk that is asphalt instead of the lighter colored concrete... most times that's the only indicator of which sidewalk is the actual trail.
5) At a few intersections or other transition areas, look for small, white signs that read "no motor vehicles". Most often that's the only marking for some sort of trail entrance across the street. You can't always see the path itself, so at times these signs (when they actually have them) are the only way you know there is a path across the street.
This city has put a tremendous amount of money in the downtown area. Parks everywhere, a beautiful river walk, seemingly nice restaurants (most were closed... we'd recommend Clara's on the River... very nice after our ride), etc. But once you leave the downtown area, things get pretty run down in a hurry. This could be a great trail and a destination for cyclists... but as it is it will be a one-and-done for us. No reason to ride this one again until they clean it up and get it marked a little better.
Just for note, we aren't trail snobs. We don't expect every trail we ride to be laid out, groomed, and marked perfectly. We ride a lot of rails-to-trails routes and we go looking for trails like this that potentially offer some fun off the bike kicking around in the downtown areas. Unfortunately, Battle Creek is shut down on Sundays (apparently they make extra cereal on Saturdays so the city can close up on Sunday) so we were pretty discouraged.
We came from Indiana to ride the trail had pretty nice scenery and pretty good signage but for sure needs maintenance pretty bumpy in lot of place. Parked at Moore park parking lot restrooms were locked up in the middle of of the day on a Sunday. Glad we rode the trail but wouldn't make the drive back to it to ride it again.
With a few small, but reasonably steep hills, this trail runs behind Meijer and Walmart while passing some apartment complexes. Lots of stopping at cross streets and to actually stay on the trail. It seems this is much more for residents to commute in the area or get in a quick run. Both ends of the trail have parking. The south trailhead ends at the high school. It was perfect to ride to the hot air balloon festival and avoid the hassles of parking. I suggest staying on the street behind walmart instead of hopping up onto the path. Also, when coming north to south be on lookout at the park for the left turn on to a street marked "no outlet." You will end up riding directly next to a play ground. (We missed the turn when riding and had to double back) There a bit of riding on the road, but it is mostly on a sidewalk. The residents were super sweet and always waved us on or backed up because they thought they were out too far into the intersection. :) May ride it again if in the area and need to get a ride in. Would not come here just to ride this though.
Drove in circles trying to find the parking spots identified on the map. Finally found the rode to the parking lot and it was closed. What we could see of the trail was pretty much like sidewalks. If I wanted to ride through neighborhoods I would have rode at home.
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