Find the top rated trails in Leeds, 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.
In northeast Alabama, the nearly 33-mile Chief Ladiga Trail is a regional playground that passes through welcoming towns and pastoral landscapes. Following a former CSX railroad corridor, the...
Railroad Park is an 8-block recreational public space in downtown Birmingham that celebrates the city's railroad culture both past and present. It borders active railroad lines that transverse the...
Birmingham's mile-long Vulcan Trail scales the ridge of 1,025-foot Red Mountain. In summer, the tree-lined trail offers cool respite from the heat, while bare winter trees yield city views. Best of...
Fultondale Rails to Trails is part of the Five Mile Creek Greenway which will eventually extend over 27 miles. This segment of the Five Mile Creek project is over three miles and is ideal for walking...
The High Ore Line Trail, which opened in 2016, is located in the southwestern outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. The pathway offers a convenient and pleasant transportation option as it passes over...
Homewood Shades Creek Greenway, also known as the Lakeshore Trail, will one day stretch 6 miles through Homewood, a southern suburb of Birmingham. Currently, 2.6 miles are complete paralleling...
The Jones Valley Trail near downtown Birmingham stretches a half mile along 1st Avenue South from 25th Street to 32nd Street. Following a former railroad corridor, the paved, tree-lined rail-trail is...
The Sumiton Trail begins at City Hall in the heart of the community of Sumiton, which lies northwest of Birmingham. The mile-long paved trail heads west out of town and ends with a connection to the...
The Horse Creek Trail spans just over 3 paved miles between Dora and Sumiton, two small communities northwest of Birmingham. As the trail was built on a former railroad bed, it's a flat, easy walk or...
Birmingham's mile-long Vulcan Trail scales the ridge of 1,025-foot Red Mountain. In summer, the tree-lined trail offers cool respite from the heat, while bare winter trees yield city views. Best of...
The High Ore Line Trail, which opened in 2016, is located in the southwestern outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. The pathway offers a convenient and pleasant transportation option as it passes over...
The Sumiton Trail begins at City Hall in the heart of the community of Sumiton, which lies northwest of Birmingham. The mile-long paved trail heads west out of town and ends with a connection to the...
The Horse Creek Trail spans just over 3 paved miles between Dora and Sumiton, two small communities northwest of Birmingham. As the trail was built on a former railroad bed, it's a flat, easy walk or...
The BMRR South Trail is part of a network of 14 miles of hiking and biking pathways throughout Birmingham’s 1,500-acre Red Mountain Park, which opened in 2012. The park’s namesake mountain was the...
The Jones Valley Trail near downtown Birmingham stretches a half mile along 1st Avenue South from 25th Street to 32nd Street. Following a former railroad corridor, the paved, tree-lined rail-trail is...
Railroad Park is an 8-block recreational public space in downtown Birmingham that celebrates the city's railroad culture both past and present. It borders active railroad lines that transverse the...
Homewood Shades Creek Greenway, also known as the Lakeshore Trail, will one day stretch 6 miles through Homewood, a southern suburb of Birmingham. Currently, 2.6 miles are complete paralleling...
Birmingham's much anticipated Rotary Trail opened April 2016. At its entrance, the trail features a 46-foot-tall sign which reads: "Rotary Trail in the Magic City." It is modeled after the historical...
Fultondale Rails to Trails is part of the Five Mile Creek Greenway which will eventually extend over 27 miles. This segment of the Five Mile Creek project is over three miles and is ideal for walking...
In northeast Alabama, the nearly 33-mile Chief Ladiga Trail is a regional playground that passes through welcoming towns and pastoral landscapes. Following a former CSX railroad corridor, the...
The Sumiton Trail begins at City Hall in the heart of the community of Sumiton, which lies northwest of Birmingham. The mile-long paved trail heads west out of town and ends with a connection to the...
The BMRR South Trail is part of a network of 14 miles of hiking and biking pathways throughout Birmingham’s 1,500-acre Red Mountain Park, which opened in 2012. The park’s namesake mountain was the...
Homewood Shades Creek Greenway, also known as the Lakeshore Trail, will one day stretch 6 miles through Homewood, a southern suburb of Birmingham. Currently, 2.6 miles are complete paralleling...
Fultondale Rails to Trails is part of the Five Mile Creek Greenway which will eventually extend over 27 miles. This segment of the Five Mile Creek project is over three miles and is ideal for walking...
Birmingham's mile-long Vulcan Trail scales the ridge of 1,025-foot Red Mountain. In summer, the tree-lined trail offers cool respite from the heat, while bare winter trees yield city views. Best of...
Railroad Park is an 8-block recreational public space in downtown Birmingham that celebrates the city's railroad culture both past and present. It borders active railroad lines that transverse the...
Birmingham's much anticipated Rotary Trail opened April 2016. At its entrance, the trail features a 46-foot-tall sign which reads: "Rotary Trail in the Magic City." It is modeled after the historical...
In northeast Alabama, the nearly 33-mile Chief Ladiga Trail is a regional playground that passes through welcoming towns and pastoral landscapes. Following a former CSX railroad corridor, the...
The Horse Creek Trail spans just over 3 paved miles between Dora and Sumiton, two small communities northwest of Birmingham. As the trail was built on a former railroad bed, it's a flat, easy walk or...
The High Ore Line Trail, which opened in 2016, is located in the southwestern outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. The pathway offers a convenient and pleasant transportation option as it passes over...
The Jones Valley Trail near downtown Birmingham stretches a half mile along 1st Avenue South from 25th Street to 32nd Street. Following a former railroad corridor, the paved, tree-lined rail-trail is...
Chief Ladiga Trail, Nov 2018, *Excellent*
I recently bicycled from Dallas, Ga, to Anniston, Ala. An excellent ride which I highly recommend, that could easily be broken into sections for a family outing or weekend 'de-stressor'. Thank you to those responsible for the development and maintenance of this path. Great job!
Comments;
Trail surface conditions; excellent. The path is cement in Georgia and asphalt in Alabama for the entire length. It is well drained, smooth, wide, and in generally excellent repair. A few areas tree roots have encroached and damaged the asphalt path, but this is not currently an issue.
Signage & markers; very good over all. Markers are located every mile, however a recommended improvement would be to add distance values to cities, towns, trailheads, etc. As for signage there is very little. Interpretive plaques, historical markers, place names, availability and direction of restroom\food\lodging\police\medical signs, etc. could be added at appropriate sites.
Trail maintenance; very good to excellent. The trail right of way is clear and wide, free of encroaching brush and bordered by well kept grass. Some vistas could be improved by clearing underbrush which would allow viewing of surrounding area. Especially when approaching some road crossings is this true. I noticed virtually no litter. Trestles and bridges, while currently usable and safe, are showing typical wear and age. Hopefully a schedule of maintenance exists for these.
Amenities; average. While benches and rest stops are conveniently located and not too far apart, I think toilets or port-a-potties are needed trailside at appropriate locations.
Great job to those who created this trail!
A friend and I began our walk/hike at sunrise at the AL/GA state line. With 33 miles ahead of us an early start was necessary to allow enough time (10-11 hrs) to finish the trail before sunset that evening. The first several hours of the walk gave way to a landscape of beautiful autumn colors, bridges, and streams. Duggar Mtn also provided a beautiful backdrop for surrounding pastures, forests, and farmlands. As we continued on the path through the countryside the scenery began to change as the trail lead us through the small town of Piedmont where we were able to rest for a short while at the Eubanks Welcome Center. For the next several miles we continued to enjoy the beauty of the trail. Entering Jacksonville the trail lead us through the campus of Jacksonville State University and near a old train depot. With the sun beginning to set we finally made our way to the trail end in Weaver where friends and family greeted us with a celebratory bottle of champagne to commemorate a successful adventure.
I started my ride at the trailhead in Anniston, a really good spot to begin the ride: a large parking-area directly on the trail, a lovely and well-kept park, and, what was a total surprise to my wife and me, it not only has public restrooms, but also showers, not locked but open for everyone, and with HOT water at that, and everything perfectly clean! We were enthusiastic! Considering the hot showers there, it might also be a very good end of a ride, of course.
In Jacksonville the former railway depot now is a well-maintained rest stop, with absolutely clean facilities. Water is also available there. And don’t forget to sign the guestbook for the trail.
The end, the spot where it connects with the Silver Comet Trail that is, has a nice rest area with benches and a Porta Potty which, after a 33-mile ride, might come in handy.
When I rode the Chief Ladiga Trail on May 19 this year, it was an absolutely fantastic day. It was quite warm, and the humidity wasn't half bad, but as the trail quite often lead under the thick leafy canopy of the trees and as I had the airflow around me, it certainly was bearable. The air was gorgeously fresh, and smelled of every possible tree, shrub, and herb, and I kept thinking that here even the air one breathes was green. I didn't see any larger wildlife, but an abundance of squirrels and chipmunks. The small towns I passed through were some nice distraction – not that I had needed one as the trail showed enough variety: sometimes leading through open meadow, sometimes through green tunnels in a manner of speaking, and later with the wooded hills of Alabama in the background, with a blue sky and fluffy white clouds above. And in between again and again the green wetlands of a slowly meandering gurgling creek.
Finally, a remark about the state of the trail: absolutely fantastic – smooth asphalt from beginning to end [I could easily have ridden my road bike instead of the more cross-country-suitable Salsa Fargo], and if there was a slight dent in it, from a root that was pushing the asphalt up, that was marked with white paint, even if it was just half an inch up. The people who first created that path and now maintain it in such a perfect condition deserve a lot of praise and a heartfelt "thank you".
The third trail of our trip from Fl to Ms and Al. We had rode this trail before it was paved and didn't remember how long ago it was, the host at the Eubanks Center in Piedmont told us it has been paved for over 20 years. Piedmont is the heart of this trail. The round trip to Georgia's Silver Comet was the best part. There are views of the mountains to the sides of the trail. The state border has a nice rest area and great signage. As we went through Jacksonville there was trucks and equipment on the trail, they were cleaning up damage from the April tornado. On both sides of the trail you could see the destroyed buildings. The Jacksonville Train Depot was a high point, we used it for our last day start and end point. Then just down the street we found Struts where we celebrated completing our trails with great wings and beer. We would return to this trail.
This trail has saved my life. literally, the chief means to controlling diabetes. The beauty of the land, the great places you pass through, the folks you meet, the welcome centers and facilities along the way are outstanding, with the one in Piedmont giving out free snacks to bikers and hikers. I can't say enough about the entire 95 miles of trails, from Anniston, AL to the Atlanta, GA area. Be conscious of the bumps caused by tree roots, they can throw you at speed above 15 MPH (trail designated maximum speed). Don't forget to sound off when passing others on the trail, it is just being a good neighbor.
Sumiton plus Horse Creek trail 4.2 miles. Nice ride, easy down and back on a beautiful day. Great warm up preparing for a longer trip. Scenery is very nice in March! Drove from Birmingham just to explore.
This was a fun little trail to ride our bikes on. We just wanted a casual ride and that’s what we got! It is paved, flat, and shaded in some areas. There are shaded benches along the path which was nice. There are a few locations where the trail does cross over a back country road, so just be aware when you come to those. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my ride and will be back as soon as I can!
Gorgeous views and smooth, steady asphalt. What more could you ask for?
This trail was easily the most welcome surprise I found after enrolling at Jacksonville State University. Paved and flat, it's a perfect trail for beginners (like yours truly) but the sheer length of the trail opens it up to experienced wayfarers as well. It's a beautiful, tree-lined experience with plenty of shade for extended trips. My usual routes are from the Jacksonville train station to Alexandria-Jacksonville hwy and from Park Place Apartments to Germania Springs Park, alternating which one I do each day. Both are just over 3 miles round-trip. The trail is lively -- so lively, in fact, that I've never gona down it without meeting at least 3 others. If you prefer your walk in solitude, then this trail is not what you're looking for. Otherwise, I believe everyone should give Ladiga a shot! Also, if you wish to go further, the trail becomes the Silver Comet Trail at the state line, extending on into Georgia.
We parked at Esom Hill, close to the GA/AL border. We rode the Comet east to Cedartown mi53 (see my reviews of other sections of Comet), then turned around and rode west to Borden Springs. 27mi roundtrip. Trail is concrete in GA, then turns to asphalt in AL, but both well maintained. It runs through the woods almost the whole way. Shaded, but no scenery but trees. No facilities either. It is a rail-trail, and you think its flat, but its not. Esom Hill is the crest, and its down hill both ways from there - about 100ft elevation change on both sides. But its gradual, so its very doable. But you will notice the difference one direction over the other. Will return to do final west section.
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