Explore the best rated trails in Auburn, IN. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Central City Trail and Pumpkinvine Nature Trail. With more than 30 trails covering 221 miles you're bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
There's about 0.7 of a mile south of town that is great. The rest of the "trails" are just city surface streets declared to be "trails" with no signage to point you in the right direction. Nothing compared to the trail systems available in Goshen up the road.
The trail passes through what the locals call Winona Village which is a small peninsula with a shop lined canal and many picturesque houses. Definitely worth exploring. There's a side trail that takes you up to Grace College. It's a mile long and goes through secluded woods with trail side sculptures. That's a mile long so adds 2 miles. You can circle the lake (i suggest going clock wise so you are always making right turns and don't have to cross traffic). The college detour and circling the lake gives you a 10 mile loop. Detour into downtown for another 2 miles. There are many nice houses along main and center streets. The courthouse and surrounding square is very picturesque.
This trail starts in Goshen College and heads south along what I assume is an old rail trail. It's surprisingly secluded, quiet and peaceful. We hit the trail from the south end of the Millrace Trail where it terminates in the Shoups-Parsons Woods Park by taking Westwood Road east to the campus where there's a small curvy access trail. You can see this on the map just south of westwood on main st. There's a nice extension to the east worth a detour. Go north to explore the campus. Then the best part is heading south where the trail is secluded. We headed west from the southern end of the trail and explored Violett Cemetery as we headed back north.
The trail goes north from the pumpkinvine trail just south of middlebury. The trail briefly parallels state road 20 before branching off around a horse field and then into a golf course like park with a picturesque covered bridge. It finishes in the hugely popular Das Dutchman Essenhaus with it's many shops and restaurants. I recommend the cookies in the bakery. The north end of the trail connects with the Wayne Avenue trail which will take you into the center of Middlebury and the pumpkin vine trail.
The trail passes through what the locals call Winona Village which is a small peninsula with a shop lined canal and many picturesque houses. Definitely worth exploring. There's a side trail that takes you up to Goshen College. It's a mile long and goes through secluded woods with trail side sculptures. That's a mile long so adds 2 miles. You can circle the lake (i suggest going clock wise so you are always making right turns and don't have to cross traffic). The college detour and circling the lake gives you a 10 mile loop. Detour into downtown for another 2 miles. There are many nice houses along main and center streets. The courthouse and surrounding square is very picturesque.
This is not a trail but a random series of plain narrow sidewalks and roads. There are 3 nice bits: on the east side of syracuse lake there's a narrow paved section (not wide enough to pass) , a short flowery stretch north of lake Wawasee near the gulf course and the best bit a boardwalk called the Conklin Bay Trail on the sw side of Lake Wawasee. Unfortunately these bits are less then 10% of the trail.
I don't know what the criteria is for putting trails on TrailLink. There are no markers showing where the trail is. There is nothing natural telling you where to go. There is nothing traily about it. No clue why this is on trail link.
That being said, we ended up doing a figure eight around lake syracuse and lake wawasee which we really enjoyed. That ended up being about 21 miles. State Road 13 is really busy with fast traffic so we avoided that as much as possible. There's a full service bathroom at Lakeview Park across from the Syracuse Community Center.
We parked at East Winney park which allowed us to return to our car between doing branches of the trail. There are no bathrooms there, but there are plenty full service restrooms along the trail. We did the entire trail and adding in the side parks you can optionally do and a brief detour for lunch we ended up with 75 miles. I think if you stuck to the trails themselves you'd be looking at around 50-55 miles. Our favorite path was the one going east to New Haven as that path is the most secluded and follows the river which is visible for most of the way. What is particularly nice is that these are not straight boring rail trails through corn fields. There is a lot of variety and distractions along the way. There are a few short bits in town that are a bit trafficy but they're quickly forgotton as most of the ride is along the river and through parks.
First time on the trail.
Love the tunnel of trees!
Smooth!
The hidden switchbacks can sneak up on you.
Wish the trail was much longer than 7.7
This isn't one of the greatest scenic trails but it does have unique beauty if you look close enough. The best feature is the wetland the borders one side of some of the trail. While we didn't see much wildlife, meadow flowers were in bloom. There is a boardwalk overlook with many hibiscus in full bloom. We went in mid July. More people were riding on a Monday morning than we expected. The surface was great.
We rode the trail from Abshire Park in Goshen all the way to Shipshewana and back. The views were spectacular with the corn and wildflowers in bloom. The Gap in the trail is under construction so hopefully by next summer it will be completed. Mooey’s Ice cream was a great stop on our return trip. Dips Ice cream is also on the trail but right next to a busy intersection where Mooey’s is away from the road and set back down a driveway. Krinder Garden is also a great stopping point. Looking forward to riding this again.
Parked at Keener Park, which has a lot of parking, restrooms and water. Rode east until turn on southern leg, went to Fulton-Lucas Rd (CR1) where the pavement ended. Turned north on CR1 for 4.5 mi and only had 4 cars pass me on a Saturday late morning. Turned west when rejoined the northern leg and rode thru pavement end, before trying to go further about a mile over coarsely crushed stone surface and grass.
Turned back and proceeded past Keener Park and past south fork to Wabash Cannonball Connector trail which winds past mall and over freeway to Fallen Timbers monument area. Down the hill to the trails in the Side Cut Metropark along the muddy Maumee River. Then back up to Keener Park- about 52 miles.
Although my plans had been to ride further west until the trail became too bumpy even on my hybrid, adventuring over to Fallen Timbers and the park more than made up for my disappointment. There is a lot of history and scenic things to see that I might have otherwise missed had I hit my distance goal (50) sooner.
Not a destination trail yet as the unpaved surface needs improvement, but certainly a great day trip and one I would repeat in the future.
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