Find the top rated trails in Franklin, 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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Although short, the West Allis Cross Town Connector represents an important start to a future link between three trails in Milwaukee County. Currently, the trail begins at a junction with the New...
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The Fox River Trail runs diagonally along its namesake waterway through Waukesha in southeastern Wisconsin (just outside of Milwaukee). A trailhead at the E.B. Shurts Environmental Education Center in...
The Chain O' Lakes Bike Path is a paved trail that runs between E. Grand Avenue in Fox Lake and Grant Woods Forest Preserve to the east. The trail parallels the railroad track and Rollins Road/CR 31,...
The 13.5-mile Lake Michigan Pathway keeps you in close touch with the sixth-largest freshwater lake in the world as it links rail-trails north and south of the port city of Racine. Along the way, the...
Janesville's Spring Brook Trail provides an important non-motorized route to many of the city's popular recreational amenities. The pathway begins just off the eastern terminus of the Rock River...
The Cushing Park Road Recreational Trail begins on the western outskirts of Delafield, a small community about 30 miles west of Milwaukee. From Delafield's Main Street, the trail heads south,...
The Root River Pathway uses a combination of off-road trail and on-road route to form a crescent around the City of Racine. The trail closely follows the bends of the Root River, making it a great...
In 1957, baseball legend Hank “The Hammer” Aaron led the Milwaukee Braves to the first of two consecutive World Series appearances and a championship over the usually dominant New York Yankees. In...
If you’re going to visit the historical communities that lie just west of Lake Michigan, why not use the former route of the venerable interurban railroad? The Ozaukee Interurban Trail stretches the...
The Seven Waters Bike Trail is a scenic corridor stretching more than 17 miles northsouth between Burlington and Muskego Lake into Waukesha County. The trail was originally three trails, locally...
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The Prairie Trail runs the length of McHenry County and is managed by the McHenry County Conservation District. The rail-trail spans just over 26 miles from the Wisconsin border and the farms and...
The Millennium Trail currently spans just over 30 miles in two disconnected segments, but there are plans to extend it to 35 miles and connect it to the Des Plaines River Trail. The trail goes through...
The WE Energies Trail, so named because it uses a Wisconsin Energy Corporation utility corridor for much of its route, links Racine and Oak Creek in Racine and Milwaukee counties. Despite the presence...
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Racine’s southeastern neighborhoods are home to the North Shore Trail, which extends south to the Racine–Kenosha county line. Because Racine County standardized its signs several years ago, you won't...
The Sheboygan Interurban Trail follows the route of an electric railway that once ran between Milwaukee and Sheboygan from the early 1900s to 1951. The trail begins at Pebble Beach Road on the Ozaukee...
Kinnickinnic River Trail (called the KK River Trail by locals) runs just over 2 miles in southern Milwaukee, following the river through a densely populated and industrial corridor. The trail links...
The Glacial River Trail provides bikers, pedestrians, and in-line skaters with a 55.8-mile off-road/on-road rural route winding through farmland, prairie, wetlands, and woodlands as it passes through...
The Wild Goose State Trail is a premier rail-trail, spanning approximately 35 miles in Dodge and Fond du Lac counties. If you are looking for a peaceful and beautiful place to visit, this trail has it...
The Des Plaines River Trail runs alongside the Des Plaines River for just over 56 miles, protecting watershed habitat and forestland through much of Lake and Cook Counties. The trail is a natural...
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An excellent example of land use in greater Chicago, the entire Skokie Valley Trail corridor is a rail-with-trail, paralleled by double tracks that sit about 40 feet to the west of the trail surface....
The City of Franklin Hike and Bike Trail follows a corridor originally used by the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light, an interurban railroad in southeastern Wisconsin. The corridor was later acquired...
Broad blue skies strung with white cloud wisps; gem-green fields harboring cattails and butterflies; canopied glens giving way to cavernous quarries. It's all part of the ride on the Bugline...
The Lake Country Recreation Trail runs from the western edge of Waukesha to Oconomowoc in Wisconsin’s Lake Country area. Most of the trail was built on a former Milwaukee-Watertown Interurban Railway...
Moraine Hills State Park Trail offers a wonderful experience for any geology or nature aficionado. A moraine is an accumulation of earth and stones carried and finally deposited by a glacier....
The Glacial River Trail provides bikers, pedestrians, and in-line skaters with a 55.8-mile off-road/on-road rural route winding through farmland, prairie, wetlands, and woodlands as it passes through...
The 13.5-mile Lake Michigan Pathway keeps you in close touch with the sixth-largest freshwater lake in the world as it links rail-trails north and south of the port city of Racine. Along the way, the...
The North Shore Bike Path runs for nearly 8 miles between Lake Bluff and Mundelein, paralleling State Route 176 for the path's entire length. The trail is one of dozens in the Chicagoland area, all of...
The Hebron Trail rolls across the northern Illinois prairie through the former corridor of the Kenosha and Rockford Railroad, known as the Kenosha Division Line at the time of its demise in 1939....
The Milwaukee RiverWalk provides a pleasant way to get around Milwaukee from the Historic Third Ward, through downtown, and north to the Lower East Side. It also has easy connections to three other...
If you’re going to visit the historical communities that lie just west of Lake Michigan, why not use the former route of the venerable interurban railroad? The Ozaukee Interurban Trail stretches the...
In 1957, baseball legend Hank “The Hammer” Aaron led the Milwaukee Braves to the first of two consecutive World Series appearances and a championship over the usually dominant New York Yankees. In...
The WE Energies Trail, so named because it uses a Wisconsin Energy Corporation utility corridor for much of its route, links Racine and Oak Creek in Racine and Milwaukee counties. Despite the presence...
The Brown Deer Recreational Trail runs through the Village of Brown Deer, a suburb of Milwaukee. The tree-line route parallels an active rail line through commercial and residential areas. Mid-way,...
The Cushing Park Road Recreational Trail begins on the western outskirts of Delafield, a small community about 30 miles west of Milwaukee. From Delafield's Main Street, the trail heads south,...
The Wild Goose State Trail is a premier rail-trail, spanning approximately 35 miles in Dodge and Fond du Lac counties. If you are looking for a peaceful and beautiful place to visit, this trail has it...
The Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail runs for 6 miles along an abandoned railroad corridor, between the towns of Allens Grove and Clinton. The trail is open to snowmobiles, cyclists, horseback riders and...
The Des Plaines River Trail runs alongside the Des Plaines River for just over 56 miles, protecting watershed habitat and forestland through much of Lake and Cook Counties. The trail is a natural...
The Duck Lake Nature Area Trail follows the southern side of Lake Como between Lake Geneva and Como, Wisconsin, not far from the Illinois state line. The trail is more rustic than most rail-trails and...
The Root River Pathway uses a combination of off-road trail and on-road route to form a crescent around the City of Racine. The trail closely follows the bends of the Root River, making it a great...
The Beerline Trail, so named because the corridor was once used by freight trains transporting the ingredients for beer to some of Milwaukee’s famous breweries, has contributed to the revitalization...
The Middlefork Savanna Forest Preserve is a natural gem hidden in an high-income neighborhood of Lake Forest, Illinois. Those 600 acres are home to perhaps the best-preserved example of the rare...
The Muskego Recreation Trail follows a corridor originally used by the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light, an interurban railroad in southeastern Wisconsin. The corridor was later acquired by...
The Lake Country Recreation Trail runs from the western edge of Waukesha to Oconomowoc in Wisconsin’s Lake Country area. Most of the trail was built on a former Milwaukee-Watertown Interurban Railway...
The Millennium Trail currently spans just over 30 miles in two disconnected segments, but there are plans to extend it to 35 miles and connect it to the Des Plaines River Trail. The trail goes through...
The Racine-Sturtevant Trail runs for 3.5 miles from the western side of Racine to near the eastern edge of the Village of Sturtevant. The trail occupies an abandoned rail corridor for most of its...
The Long Prairie Trail journeys across the width of agricultural Boone County for nearly 14 miles on the railroad corridor previously used by the Kenosha and Rockford Railroad, later known as the...
The Pike River Pathway is a short trail on both sides of the reconstructed Pike River in the Village of Mount Pleasant. The path is convenient to several neighborhoods in the community. Birds, frogs...
Broad blue skies strung with white cloud wisps; gem-green fields harboring cattails and butterflies; canopied glens giving way to cavernous quarries. It's all part of the ride on the Bugline...
The 13.5-mile Lake Michigan Pathway keeps you in close touch with the sixth-largest freshwater lake in the world as it links rail-trails north and south of the port city of Racine. Along the way, the...
The Robert McClory Bike Path runs the length of Lake County, knitting together a string of communities on the north shore of Chicago all the way to the Wisconsin border. In 1997, the trail was named...
Ridgefield Trace currently consists of two short segments open for use. The western section runs from McHenry County College on US 14 in Crystal Lake to just west of N. Oak Street. Active railroad...
The Fox River Trail runs diagonally along its namesake waterway through Waukesha in southeastern Wisconsin (just outside of Milwaukee). A trailhead at the E.B. Shurts Environmental Education Center in...
The White River State Trail is composed of two separate segments: a 12-mile stretch that runs between Elkhorn and just west of Burlington in Walworth County, and a 7-mile section that connects the...
Meadowbrook Trail parallels Meadowbrook Road offering a useful and convenient off-road route through northwest Waukesha. It begins at a connection to Lake Country Recreation Trail, a 15-mile east-west...
Racine County's eastern edge is home to the MRK Trail, a rail-with-trail that extends north from the City of Racine to the Village of Caledonia. Because Racine County standardized its signs several...
The Hebron Trail rolls across the northern Illinois prairie through the former corridor of the Kenosha and Rockford Railroad, known as the Kenosha Division Line at the time of its demise in 1939....
The Des Plaines River Trail runs alongside the Des Plaines River for just over 56 miles, protecting watershed habitat and forestland through much of Lake and Cook Counties. The trail is a natural...
In 1957, baseball legend Hank “The Hammer” Aaron led the Milwaukee Braves to the first of two consecutive World Series appearances and a championship over the usually dominant New York Yankees. In...
The Prairie Trail runs the length of McHenry County and is managed by the McHenry County Conservation District. The rail-trail spans just over 26 miles from the Wisconsin border and the farms and...
The Lake Geneva Bike Path runs through the scenic resort city, offering connections to many of the community’s amenities. The trail has five unique, color-coded segments. The Blue Route is the...
A friend and I rode sections of the Oak Leaf trail as part of a multi-day trip from Chicago to Cedarburg, WI. We rode 10 different trails and found some sections of the Oak Leaf trail to be as good as it gets! It is paved and well maintained and generally runs through quiet country and/or neighborhoods. We only had a couple of issues - one being that part of the trail was closed and the detour signs were not clear for people from out of state. We are very thankful for friendly "natives" who helped us find our way to where the trail was open. The second was a section near Oak Creek that had 4 small sections with significant flooding - about 18 inches of water. It is kind of fun riding through big puddles, but unfortunately, the water was deep enough to soak the bottom of our saddlebags. Nonetheless, we thoroughly enjoyed riding on this trail (the sections of the trail we did ride) and would recommend it highly! We found very few other riders/users - but I am guessing that rain, wind and cloudy days keep locals indoors--because the trail itself is wonderful!
This little trail provides a smooth connection between the Oak Leaf Trail and the Ozaukee Interurban trail. It is very nice with a good, smooth surface - riding through Browndeer neighborhoods. One can ride miles and miles in Wisconsin without riding on a road!
Excerpted from my blog (https://desplainesrivertrailcycling.blogspot.com/)
April 12, 2018
First ride of 2018, 42 miles down and only 1,958 to hit my annual target! The afternoon started out warm and sunny, a rare occurrence this Spring as the start of April hasn't been this cold in Chicago in 137 years with multiple snow storms! About 90 minutes into my ride the wind shifted and it was like someone turned on an air conditioner - in five minutes the temp went from high 60's to 50 degrees which is where I usually draw the line on riding 'cause it gets too cold for me.
Overall trail conditions are pretty decent with no flooding from Deerfield Road up to Independence Grove and while the trail surface is somewhat rutted from the long winter it is in reasonably good shape. One word of caution, bring plenty of water as none of the wells along the trail are open for the season and are wrapped in plastic film.
I did the circuit around Independence Grove and from a distance spotted what appeared to be two baby owls peeking out of the hole in tree. I thought it was my lucky day and quickly snapped this pic (see on blog) only to get closer and realize they were fake, the dead giveaway is the yellow glue on their feet - fake news indeed :-)
Not much in the way of color on the trail yet, it has been too cold for any spring flowers.
Great trail,I have ridden it many times over the past two years.The only problem when you ride is the pedestrians who won't share the trail,and stay to the right so you can pass them.Some people are selfish.There is nothing hard about being considerate.Many people use the trail,it must be shared.
I visited this path on Summer 2017. I loved that path. My, my father and my nephews enjoyed all aspects of the path, the lakes, trees, animals and hills. As one of the visitor mentioned, this path offers a lot to see. We stopped once to see the entire colony of almost 100 turtles (Yes, we stopped long enough to count them) The view amazed us. Because the path follows "one way" only, it annoyed me a bit, but as we were exploring it, I understood the rationale. People had a reason to call it "Moraine Hills." Two way traffic would cause plenty of accidents. However, the those hills really shaped and strengthened our endurance. The step slopes would made simultaneously spit your lungs out on the way up, and on the way down scream from top of your lungs. Excitement and the joy from being on the path resulted in the best memories. Everyone needs to visit this path. I can assure you that I will come back there with pleasure.
I was told that this trail is much better at other times of the year, but this was not it. I started at Anderson Park in Kenosha and rode the south portion of the Kenosha County Bike Trail. The McClory path started when crossing the state line. Going from pavement to mush was pretty disheartening, but the McClory was a struggle. I gave up after a mile, which was much further than I saw anyone else ride. I imagine that riding through two inches of oatmeal would be pretty similar to this experience.
After riding west from the trail I turned south on Lewis Avenue. That wasn't too bad until it changed to a 4-lane road with little room on the side. I went back east when I saw a sign for a library. There was an old blacktop path that ran parallel to the McClory for a short distance. It was pretty beat up, but better than the McClory. When that ended I rode a few streets in the area that ultimately took me back to Lewis, at which point I headed back to Kenosha.
It was very disappointing, but I'll try again this summer when things should be better. 2 stars because I was given hope for a better experience later in the year. It's too bad that Lake County doesn't pave this since the road riding can be a bit frightening around there.
Live near the Bugline so ride it often but have seen a change since asphalt was laid. Some riders think they training for the Olympics and can be dangerous for Walkers.
From Waukesha to London and back to Lake Mills DNR camp. Awesome bacon burger trail side in Mills! Forget the name of the bowling alley bar joint. More dog walkers then bikers this trip, if you don't pick it up kick it off to the side of the trail! worse then those darn potholes that have been mostly filled in. Would rather look for deer then dog #*!+! One lady complained about bathrooms being closed at the Mills trail head with no port-a-potty. Blah Blah Blah! Great ride, love to see the folks walking the pups out there.fff
I just did the segment from Capital Drive down to Burleigh, and given its length and street crossings, the trail is probably better suited for walking. The trail is smooth and in great condition, but the ride is over before it starts, if you know what I mean. I rode it in the dark, and it can be a bit tricky to find the trail on the other side of some of the crossings, but I'm sure this is not likely an issue in the daylight.
A gorgeously scenic trail leading from Wilmette to Kenosha that for the most part follows the Metra Union Pacific North line, which is handy to know if you plan to take the whole trail but only have enough gas left in the tank to take it in but one direction.
You'll want a decent, light weight bike with sturdy tires that guarantee you some traction, as you will encounter some loose, grainy gravel better suited to a hybrid than a road bike, especially in some parts of Cook and Lake County, though a bit less than half of the trail is smoothly paved. There's very little incline, though you will encounter a slight amount of uphill biking around the Waukegan area, heading southbound, though nothing steep.
The Kenosha portion of the trail is well kept and smooth riding.
One criticism I have is the lack of helpful signage. While the state and counties want to remind you at every cross street what the rules are (no equestrian or motor vehicles), there's little helpful signage to warn you of upcoming detours or divergent routes (that's government for you). For example, the road ends near the Great Lakes Naval Base, and picks up close by, but there's little to tell you where and how. There are a few times this happens and the best advice I can give is to consult your GPS regularly.
The changing leaves of autumn made this trail especially lovely. Approximately 50 miles, all told and worth seeing every bit.
Rode to Woodstock via Crystal Lake yesterday. This trail now runs from Woodstock to Crystal Lake with the break at the railroad tracks. There is a path (marked with a sign on the east end that says not a path) just south of the tracks that we easily road our bikes through. I have a road bike and my son has a touring bike. It connects the loop on the west side with Walkup Rd. The trail may not be all that scenic but is new and well maintained and got us to Woodstock safely.
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