Explore the best rated trails in Marshalltown, IA. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Old Creamery Nature Trail and C.R. Roberts Memorial Trail . With more than 79 trails covering 4213 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.
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The Green Meadows West Trail is a short multi-use path that provides an off-road connection for the Green Meadows neighborhood to the rest of the Johnston area's network of trails, enabling residents...
This is a shared-use path located on the east side of Northwest Beaver Drive in Johnston, Iowa. The trail connects residents to two recreational sites on the west shore of Saylorville Lake as well as...
The Cedar Valley Nature Trail follows the fertile Cedar River between Evansdale and Ely. The 52-mile trail comprises three former trails—the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, Cedar River Trail and parts of...
The Summerset Trail links the two central Iowa communities of Indianola and Carlisle, both of which have embraced the trail, including providing helpful signs at each end with clear directions for...
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The Wolf Creek Trail begins in Gladbrook, a small city about 70 miles northeast of Des Moines. The trail was established in 2001 by volunteers from the Gladbrook community who secured the right-of-way...
Forging a link between the South Riverside Trail (and the smaller, unpaved Trolley Trail) on one end and the Cedar Prairie Trail on the other, the Greenhill Trail is a key component in the expansive...
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Cedar Falls, Iowa serves as the endpoint of one of Iowa’s favorite regional trails, the Cedar Valley Lakes Trail, but also features an extensive network of multi-use paths and on-street bike...
Installed in 2018 as part of a major overhaul of the adjacent roadway, the University Avenue Trail provides convenient access to destinations on the corridor that were previously impossible to reach...
The Shaulis Road Trail is a ten-foot wide concrete trail that runs along the side of Shaulis Road in the sparsely populated southern edge of Waterloo, IA. The trails runs over gentle, rolling hills,...
Opened in 2016, the Carlisle Nature Trail is a beautiful way to experience the natural beauty of the small Iowa community of Carlisle, located about a dozen miles southeast of Des Moines. Running...
Stange Road trail connects residents of the Somerset neighborhood in north Ames, to the Iowa State University campus that lies directly south of it. The shared use path sits on the west side of Stange...
The Kruidenier Trail cuts through beautifully landscaped areas around Gray’s Lake and leads you into downtown Des Moines. The park offers a permanent on-site bike rental facility, restrooms, and a...
Waterloo's Donald Street Trail is a concrete sidepath trail that helps to connect parks and neighborhoods in the city's northern edge with the area's trail network, enabling cyclists, joggers and...
Constructed on the west side of the four-lane highway that gives it its name, the US 63 Trail offers a surprisingly pleasant means of traversing the busy corridor on foot or bike. While many sidepath...
The Cedar Valley Lakes Trail follows a heavily wooded route along the Cedar River, passing Alice Wyth Lake, Fisher Lake, George Wyth Lake and Brinker Lake. The opportunities for recreation are...
The Johnston Interurban Trail, built on a corridor used by Iowa's Inter-Urban Railway from 1906 until 1948, provides an important connection for the area's top-notch trail system, which enables trail...
The High Trestle Trail is one of the most pristine and highly trafficked trails in Iowa—even at night. The trail’s popularity is largely due to its famous 130-foot-tall High Trestle Bridge, which...
Cedar Falls, Iowa is well known for being home to regional treasures like the Cedar Valley Lakes Trail, but what really makes the city special is its trail network. Miles of dedicated sidepaths, park...
Running through suburban neighborhoods on the western edge of Johnston, IA, the Green Meadows North Trail offers a pleasant dose of nature and serves as a great recreational amenity for nearby...
Beginning just past the junction of the Johnston Interurban Trail and the Trestle to Trestle Trail, which carries users over the creek and south into Des Moines via the area's stellar system of...
The Grundy County Lake Trail circles its namesake 40-acre lake, where outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy fishing, boating, and many other recreational opportunities. The paved trail then continues north,...
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Des Moines' Inter-Urban Trail was opened in 1998 on the abandoned tracks of the Urbandale streetcar line. Residents and visitors of Iowa could ride the electric-powered trolley from Urbandale to Des...
The 12th Street Trail, occasionally referred to as the Pheasant Ridge Trail after the golf course it runs next to, is a wide concrete sidepath that stretches from Hudson Road to Union Road on the...
The Oralabor Gateway Trail is a 5.2 mile concrete-surfaced spur branching off from the Neal Smith Trail south of Saylorville Lake and just north of NW 66th Avenue. While running adjacent to suburban...
The Great American Rail-Trail highlights some of the country’s most iconic landmarks, well-known geography and storied history across a 3,700-miles-plus route between Washington and Washington....
The Sergeant Road Trail is part of the larger trails system in the Cedar Valley region of Iowa, which includes the cities of Cedar Falls and Waterloo. The trail parallels US 63—also known as Sergeant...
The Heart of Iowa Nature Trail traverses classic Iowa farmland along the former route of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, also known as the Milwaukee Road. The trail transitions...
This is a shared-use path located on the east side of Northwest Beaver Drive in Johnston, Iowa. The trail connects residents to two recreational sites on the west shore of Saylorville Lake as well as...
The paved Chichaqua Valley Trail crosses 27 miles of central Iowa farmland between the northeastern Des Moines suburbs and the rural community of Baxter. The trail’s name, pronounced chee-chak-wah, is...
The John Pat Dorrian Trail, formerly known as the East River Trail, runs for nearly 3.5 miles from Pete Crivaro Park in south Des Moines to Birdland Park and Marina just north of downtown. At this...
Although only a mile long, the Gilbert Drive Trail is a key connector between two other trails in the northeastern Iowa community of Evansdale. To the west, it intersects with the Cedar Valley Nature...
The trail is made up of two as yet unconnected segments: the northern segment is about half a mile long, providing access to Grinnell Community Senior School, Lion's Park, and Iowa Valley Community...
Forging a link between the South Riverside Trail (and the smaller, unpaved Trolley Trail) on one end and the Cedar Prairie Trail on the other, the Greenhill Trail is a key component in the expansive...
Opened in 2016, the Carlisle Nature Trail is a beautiful way to experience the natural beauty of the small Iowa community of Carlisle, located about a dozen miles southeast of Des Moines. Running...
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The Shell Rock River Trail, also known as the Butler County Nature Trail, connects the eastern edge of Clarksville with the community of Shell Rock. The trail runs through open fields and at times...
Constructed on the west side of the four-lane highway that gives it its name, the US 63 Trail offers a surprisingly pleasant means of traversing the busy corridor on foot or bike. While many sidepath...
When complete, the Rolling Prairie Tri-County Trail System will connect several communities and two state parks as it travels through quintessential northeastern Iowa prairie. Following an 80-mile...
The Green Meadows West Trail is a short multi-use path that provides an off-road connection for the Green Meadows neighborhood to the rest of the Johnston area's network of trails, enabling residents...
The Johnston Interurban Trail, built on a corridor used by Iowa's Inter-Urban Railway from 1906 until 1948, provides an important connection for the area's top-notch trail system, which enables trail...
South Skunk River is a tributary of the Mississippi River. In Ames, the Skunk River Trail brings residents closer to river and to nature. The shared use path sits on the shady west bank of South Skunk...
Des Moines' Inter-Urban Trail was opened in 1998 on the abandoned tracks of the Urbandale streetcar line. Residents and visitors of Iowa could ride the electric-powered trolley from Urbandale to Des...
The Northwest 62nd Avenue Trail is a wide sidepath in Johnston, IA, that serves as an important off-road connector between many of the trails in the city's well-developed trail system and the greater...
The Ewing Park Trail is a paved path, perfect for a short bike ride or jog, located in the city of Des Moines' Ewing Park. One of the city's largest public parks, the park is home to a popular lilac...
The South Riverside Trail is one in a series of trail systems throughout Cedar Falls, Iowa. The trail runs between Main Street at the Cedar Falls Recreation Center and the Greenhill Trail just west of...
Central Iowa's Pioneer Trail—which gets its name from the early settlers of Grundy County—is built on a former rail line that once connected the towns of Holland and Reinbeck and the communities in...
The Cedar Prairie Trail is an important component of the extensive trail system in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The paved pathway runs between the South Riverside Trail at Waterloo Road and the Sergeant Road...
Waterloo's Donald Street Trail is a concrete sidepath trail that helps to connect parks and neighborhoods in the city's northern edge with the area's trail network, enabling cyclists, joggers and...
Forming an important connection in the area's excellent network of multi-use trails, the Lone Tree Road Trail parallels its namesake roadway for over two miles in the northern reaches of Cedar Falls,...
The Cedar Valley Lakes Trail follows a heavily wooded route along the Cedar River, passing Alice Wyth Lake, Fisher Lake, George Wyth Lake and Brinker Lake. The opportunities for recreation are...
Named for the major project the city of Des Moines has undertaken to improve transportation and connectivity along the Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway in the southeastern section of downtown, the...
The River Forest Road Trail sits atop the levee along the Cedar River on the west side of Evansdale, Iowa. (It's alternatively called the Cedar River Levee Trail for this reason.) The paved shared-use...
The Kruidenier Trail cuts through beautifully landscaped areas around Gray’s Lake and leads you into downtown Des Moines. The park offers a permanent on-site bike rental facility, restrooms, and a...
A short, paved path that runs through open fields and clusters of trees alongside Beaver Creek, local residents use the Augustine Trail both as a convenient means of recreation and dog-walking, as...
Installed in 2018 as part of a major overhaul of the adjacent roadway, the University Avenue Trail provides convenient access to destinations on the corridor that were previously impossible to reach...
The Heart of Iowa Nature Trail traverses classic Iowa farmland along the former route of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, also known as the Milwaukee Road. The trail transitions...
The High Trestle Trail is one of the most pristine and highly trafficked trails in Iowa—even at night. The trail’s popularity is largely due to its famous 130-foot-tall High Trestle Bridge, which...
Nestled in the suburbs of Des Moines and traveling through the towns of Ankeny, Berwick, Pleasant Hill, and Altoona, the Gay Lea Wilson Trail is named for a local advocate who first conceived of a...
A short sidepath trail built along the side of its namesake roadway, the Cedar Heights Drive Trail provides a useful connection between the longer University Avenue Trail and the Greenhill Trail,...
The Hubbard Prairie Trail is a one-mile rail-trail extending from the northwest edge of the small town of Hubbard in central Iowa to the Meier Wildlife Refuge. The refuge offers a pleasant place to...
The Grundy County Lake Trail circles its namesake 40-acre lake, where outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy fishing, boating, and many other recreational opportunities. The paved trail then continues north,...
Had a nice, slightly windy 70 degree day in november and rode from Vinton to Dysart. Only saw 3 or 4 people on the round trip. Ride is flat and trail well maintained except near Dysart where there were a few trees down (but you could get around) and one bridge that was blocked with a detour sign although i did cross it and it seemed fine. Nice views of farms, a few bridges over creeks and once over the Cedar River. You can stop midway in Garrison and there is about a mile paved extension in Vinton. You could do it on a road bike if its dry although a hybrid might be a bit better. I had my mt bike and that was fine. It was past the nice leaf time but earlier in the fall and I would guess spring/summer there are enough trees it would be quite pretty. Very nice overall and i liked the low usage for the solitude. There are about five parking spots at the trailhead in Vinton (right at the end of 8th street and in Dysart it runs right through town so seemed like a lot of spots.
Excellent walking trail for those who aren't fond of steep inclines. This trail has a few mild ups and downs but for the most part is level and flat. The surface is all paved and smooth and with the lake, the trees and blue sky, it's beautiful. Wildlife, a couple of walking bridges and a covered bridge make it even more enjoyable. Casual walking takes about 2-3 hours (5-6 miles).
This is one of the best rides we have found in Des Moines. Pretty level and wide. Couple of nice bridges including a covered one! Nice places to stop and rest and view the scenery.
There are no more trail closures due to construction. You can ride from Cordova Park trailhead to Pella if you choose.
Great ride, trail well maintained and the fall foliage was a perfect setting. The bridge after sunset was beautiful.
We are beginning bikers and older. Loved the wide paved path. Put in north of Carlisle and ride was great as was the view. Then we hit the HILL. Oh my. Benches on the way up and I can see why. We could ride up and took all we had to walk up. We turned around and what a ride down. whheeeee’. Won’t be doing this one sgsin
Started at Copper Creek and followed the trail out about 2 miles. Quiet, nicely paved wide walkway- few bikers but once we got around the lake- we didn’t see anyone else. Crosses over the road twice on our route but clearly marked and easy to get back on the trail.
As of Sept 15 the trail is clear from the South Skunk River to the Trail Head on Broadway in Des Moines. That gives you about 15 miles of clear trail with Bondurant as the center point. Just to the east of the Skunk River there are trees down. Valeria still has trees down going both directions, so that is still a no go. Even though the trail is clear in places keep in mind there are still branch up high that are loose, so pay attention especially if there is any wind.
We attempted to get on the trail in Valeria and found that the trail is still blocked by limbs and downed trees from the derecho.
Unless you’re the hardy type A lot of trees down about half miles worth near the Wright brothers intersection. Work is being done to clear it but I imagine it’s going to be a long process you can get through it but you’re gonna have to do a lot of lifting of your bike
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