Find the top rated trails in Marshall, 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.
_0_st.jpg)
South Providence Trail offers a straight north-south route paralleling its namesake roadway on the southern end of Columbia. As it’s adjacent to both Rock Bridge Elementary School and Rock Bridge High...
Although Scott's Branch Trail is short (just over a mile), it’s a beautiful gem in western Columbia, traversing both the Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary and Bonnie View Nature Sanctuary. (Note that...
Hominy Creek Trail is just over a mile between Green Valley Drive and Lansing Avenue in eastern Columbia. Along the way, the paved pathway follows its namesake tree-lined creek and passes under East...
The Rock Island Spur of Katy Trail State Park travels 47.5 miles through woodlands, wetlands, and bucolic fields nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks. At either end are two towns full of charm and...
Hinkson Creek Trail offers a beautiful, natural escape as it curves around southern and eastern Columbia. The crushed limestone trail stretches just over 4 miles, partly along the southern end of the...
Columbia’s Wabash Walkway travels a short distance northwest from the campus of Columbia College. While currently less than 0.5 mile long, plans are in the works to extend it farther northeast to...
County House Trail is a 2-mile paved pathway in southwestern Columbia. The southern end of the trail connects to the scenic 8.9-mile MKT Nature and Fitness Trail, which in turn reaches the Katy Trail...
_0_sc.jpg)
Columbia’s Bear Creek Trail links two of the city's most popular community parks: the 533-acre Columbia Cosmopolitan Recreation Area (popularly known as Cosmo Park) in the west and the 81.5-acre...
Katy Trail State Park is the nation's longest continuous rail-trail, offering nearly 240 miles of scenic trail from Clinton east to Machens on the outskirts of St. Louis. The Katy Trail is in the...
Once the site of a spur line of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad, the MKT Nature and Fitness Trail now whisks cyclists and pedestrians (instead of trains) between Columbia and the small town...
The Rock Island Spur of Katy Trail State Park travels 47.5 miles through woodlands, wetlands, and bucolic fields nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks. At either end are two towns full of charm and...
Columbia’s Bear Creek Trail links two of the city's most popular community parks: the 533-acre Columbia Cosmopolitan Recreation Area (popularly known as Cosmo Park) in the west and the 81.5-acre...
Hinkson Creek Trail offers a beautiful, natural escape as it curves around southern and eastern Columbia. The crushed limestone trail stretches just over 4 miles, partly along the southern end of the...
South Providence Trail offers a straight north-south route paralleling its namesake roadway on the southern end of Columbia. As it’s adjacent to both Rock Bridge Elementary School and Rock Bridge High...
Although Scott's Branch Trail is short (just over a mile), it’s a beautiful gem in western Columbia, traversing both the Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary and Bonnie View Nature Sanctuary. (Note that...
Once the site of a spur line of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad, the MKT Nature and Fitness Trail now whisks cyclists and pedestrians (instead of trains) between Columbia and the small town...
Katy Trail State Park is the nation's longest continuous rail-trail, offering nearly 240 miles of scenic trail from Clinton east to Machens on the outskirts of St. Louis. The Katy Trail is in the...
Columbia’s Wabash Walkway travels a short distance northwest from the campus of Columbia College. While currently less than 0.5 mile long, plans are in the works to extend it farther northeast to...
County House Trail is a 2-mile paved pathway in southwestern Columbia. The southern end of the trail connects to the scenic 8.9-mile MKT Nature and Fitness Trail, which in turn reaches the Katy Trail...
Hominy Creek Trail is just over a mile between Green Valley Drive and Lansing Avenue in eastern Columbia. Along the way, the paved pathway follows its namesake tree-lined creek and passes under East...
Katy Trail State Park is the nation's longest continuous rail-trail, offering nearly 240 miles of scenic trail from Clinton east to Machens on the outskirts of St. Louis. The Katy Trail is in the...
Although Scott's Branch Trail is short (just over a mile), it’s a beautiful gem in western Columbia, traversing both the Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary and Bonnie View Nature Sanctuary. (Note that...
Hinkson Creek Trail offers a beautiful, natural escape as it curves around southern and eastern Columbia. The crushed limestone trail stretches just over 4 miles, partly along the southern end of the...
Columbia’s Wabash Walkway travels a short distance northwest from the campus of Columbia College. While currently less than 0.5 mile long, plans are in the works to extend it farther northeast to...
County House Trail is a 2-mile paved pathway in southwestern Columbia. The southern end of the trail connects to the scenic 8.9-mile MKT Nature and Fitness Trail, which in turn reaches the Katy Trail...
South Providence Trail offers a straight north-south route paralleling its namesake roadway on the southern end of Columbia. As it’s adjacent to both Rock Bridge Elementary School and Rock Bridge High...
Columbia’s Bear Creek Trail links two of the city's most popular community parks: the 533-acre Columbia Cosmopolitan Recreation Area (popularly known as Cosmo Park) in the west and the 81.5-acre...
Hominy Creek Trail is just over a mile between Green Valley Drive and Lansing Avenue in eastern Columbia. Along the way, the paved pathway follows its namesake tree-lined creek and passes under East...
Once the site of a spur line of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad, the MKT Nature and Fitness Trail now whisks cyclists and pedestrians (instead of trains) between Columbia and the small town...
The Rock Island Spur of Katy Trail State Park travels 47.5 miles through woodlands, wetlands, and bucolic fields nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks. At either end are two towns full of charm and...
We sailed through the hot sun completing 98.6 miles which was intenseeeeeeee. We camped at Pleasant Hill City Lake which was lovely and started in Pleasant Hill early morning biking from there to Windsor and back. Loose gravel most of the way with a packed edge to it except for three or so miles from Chilhowee towards Leeton. Those three or so miles were very loose gravel which we came to say was "that hellish part." Hopefully, it gets more redone as years go by in that section. Nice wide spread to bike on for the whole trail with little ponds here and there.
Our intentions were only to go to Chilhowee and back but we felt that sense we could do the long haul. One of our group headed back at Chilhowee hanging with a cool crew of a German long distancer and two men with a small dog. It's that way on these trails although VERY little people were seen. We saw a total of maybe 5 bikers the entire day although the heat may have scared off a few.
We started at 7:30am and ended at 10:00pm. We did have an hour eating and napping at Windsor which was lovely and stopped both ways at the store in Chilhowee. You MUST stop at this cute rural mecca with a homegrown feel and easy to get tire tubes and a hot meal if needed(no hot food Sunday). Such nice folks too and a little room to eat and get air conditioning if needed. Needing water is a really big deal as this trail is pretty non established in terms of little stores and such. On this trail you can get water in Chilhowee and that's pretty much it unless you ask at farmhouses or go into the small towns more than a few miles off trail.
However, beautiful corridor of trees, fields and fields of corn, and the beauty of friends, the sun as it rose and set and sounds of nature.
Awesome!
This is the best trail in the country, IMNSHO. That I live near it may have something to do with my opinion :). It does get more interesting as you go west past Jeff City. It also gets more remote from resources and is less well kept. Since this mostly follows the Missouri River, it's subject flooding, a lot. If you have the gear for cold weather, it is much better in the winter as you don't have to deal with the occasional trail users who (while innocent) don't understand trail etiquette and it's not likely to flood or have a tornado. I've been on the trail after/during both. The Missouri cresting and engulfing the trail behind and in front of one is, I have to say, the scarier of the two scenarios, in my experience.
My wife and I rode the whole trail over 6 days, including the "closed" section between mile markers 34-35. [which was easily ride-able]Wow! It is hard to come up with anything bad to say. Great conditions the entire length. A few shirt bumpy sections, which were not as bumpy as most trails. All this spots were marked well. The whole trail was signed very well.If you have ever considered a through ride, do it as soon as you can. It is truly amazing.
Keep bringing us great trail info!
We chose to ride a section of the Katy Trail between Matson and Hermann on June 9th. This was our third bicycle excursion, and my favorite by far! We stayed in Hermann, and opted to utilize the BikeHermann bike rental and shuttle service so that we could have a one-way, continuous ride (we aren't big on ride-out-ride-back). The shop owner, John, was very helpful and gave us pointers and sites to look for along the trail, such as old-timey general stores and historic markers.
This trail was very well maintained; there were a few spots where new lime/gravel had been added due to flood damage in May. All things considered, this trail was repaired quickly and repaired right, and any place new material was added was well marked by "rough surface" signs to give trail users a little warning. Trail markers are plentiful (so much that we rarely used our trail map), and the section we rode was mostly shaded (maybe 3/4 of the route), which made for a comfortable ride. Several benches, wineries, and trailheads offering water, restrooms and other amenities were plentiful on this section as well. There are some really great views of the river around mm 96, and the sandstone bluffs along this route are gorgeous.
At McKittrick, we took the Hermann trail spur off of the Katy and onto MO Hwy 19. I was a little concerned about sharing the busy road with cars, especially crossing the bridge over the Loutre River. However, the bike lane on this bridge is very generous on space and the area in general is bike-friendly. The second bridge, that crosses the Missouri, has a separate bike/walking path on the west side. I would come back and ride this one again, or maybe the next section to the north. This is a very nice trail.
We rode the Western 10 miles out of Pleasant Hill and found the trail to be in excellent condition. The scenery is excellent and the getting out of the city/suburban setting is really there. Great job Missouri!
I ride fairly regularly, rode one longer ride from Pleasant Hill to Windsor then on to Sedalia on the Katy. PH to Windsor was about 46 miles, total to Sedalia was about 70 to the Amtrak station.
There was about a 6 mile stretch near Chilhowee that had larger rocks, was a bit of a pain. I've heard they have rectified that, now smaller rock, but haven't ridden that far again to verify.
Other than that small stretch, a great trail. The only reason I didn't give 5 stars is the relative lack of water and restrooms. The Katy has nice water stops in many areas. Not much water on the Rock Island, and it's pretty far from Pleasant Hill until you get to a store, i.e. Chilhowee or Leeton. Make sure to take water with you.
Pleasant Hill PD was very kind, let me park my car overnight in their lot. I took the Amtrak back home from Sedalia to Lee's Summit, then caught an Uber to PH the next day to retrieve my car.
I rode this trail out of Sedalia, MO in November 2016. Most days were so nice I only needed a light jacket. For a dirt/gravel trail it was a smooth ride even with City tires! Through the town it got a little bumpy. Caused by more traffic. But once you leave town, it's smooth sailing. Lots of fresh air, country scenery, and wildlife. Take a bag if you like black walnuts. They fall all over the side of the trail. Highly recommend!
Un-FREAKIN’-Believable! The review could end here.
Buy “The Complete Katy Trail Guidebook” by Brett Dufur.
I only had two days to ride to make the best of the eastern half. I will return to ride the western half and the Bluffton and McKittrick/Herman sections I missed. Day 1 - I rode from Columbia to Portland (ride the M-K-T, visit the MLK Memorial Gardens, stop at the iron bridges, enjoy the bluffs, creeks & river, linger at Cooper’s Landing & eat at Dotty’s Cafe). Day 2 - I rode from Trelor to St. Charles (talk to folks at Turner KT Shelter, drink a beverage at Augusta & enjoy the well-earned bounty of St. Charles).
Rented our bikes from Touring Cyclist. The bikes had pannier racks ready for us to load up. We were picked up from the airport and taken to their shop to get fitted for our bikes. They shuttled us from St. Charles to Clinton on Day two and picked us up when we finished in St. Charles. We biked St. Charles to Machen on Day 1. The bikes were perfect for the trail. My cycling friend and I had an amazingly good time biking the 237.7 miles of this trail. The scenery changes were great. The towns along the way had perfect accommodations for us. At some of the Trail Heads there are self repair bike stations. We stopped at every trail head and read the information provided. Took a couple of added detours/stops we would not have known about if it had not been for all the information the trail heads provide. Although you have to add a few miles to get into some towns with accommodations and food, the pathways across the river, etc. provided easy access without automobile traffic.
Many kudos for those who take care of the trail. It is truly a memorable trail ride and the longest I've ever ridden. Love, love, loved it.
Love this trail!! Beautiful area. I will be back to ride it again.
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (a non-profit) and we need your support!
