Explore the best rated trails in Michigan City, IN, whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Prairie Duneland Trail and Granger Paths . With more than 63 trails covering 4205 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.
Rode the OST today. Well marked, flat and paved. A few tree roots but not significant. The trail goes through neighborhoods, parks and open land. Shaded most of the way. Overall a good 20 mile RT ride.
On 8/27/24, the National Park Service issued a solicitation for bids to improve the Marquette Trail within its boundaries as part of the overall Marquette Greenway project. Approximately 2.5 miles of the existing trail will become a 10-foot wide asphalt multi-use trail with 2-foot gravel shoulders, and include a new bridge. It looks like completion will be in 2026. Other segments of the Marquette Greenway are complete around Burns Harbor and Michigan City, and more will open by Fall 2024.
Cool trail, watch out for closure under 294 for construction. On the way down the trail we went around… on the way back we snuck through the construction zone given it was a Sunday. (Results may vary) ¿
We ( recumbent trike & e-bike) headed West from the Kiwanis park. Turned around after 9km as the surface was really tough on the trike. There’s 2 good wheel tracks for bikes, but the trike had to ride partially in the coarse trail ballast. Scenic area with farm views and a huge windmill farm in the distance.
Paved trail winds through forested areas along Salt Creek (trail can be flooded at times) with minimal on-street sections until north of Lake Street. From Lake Street to Busse Woods trail is either on-street or adjacent and passes through residential areas and industrial parks with little signage.
Trail is all crushed stone until near Elgin along the Fox River and mostly shaded with long stretches between road crossings. Passes through several forest preserves and uses tunnels or bridges when crossing major highways. Trail website at ipp.org has good maps of the entire network.
Go here to sit and observe, to meditate. It’s so close but a world away. Leave the city white noise behind. Watch the water fowl. I stop here at the end of my lakefront bike rides.
We began our ride on the far north end, at the Plym Park trailhead in Niles. Parking is more than adequate and very safe. However, as with the entire trail, there are no modern bathrooms. Simply a porta-potty every now and then. Plym Park seems like such a nice place and we were pretty surprised at the lack of facilities there.
The first 2.5 miles is probably not our favorite that we've ever done, and that's trying very hard to be diplomatic. The signage was non-existent, the crossings were poorly marked (especially the first major crossings at Wayne St and M-139. No buttons to push for crossing at a very dangerous and partially obstructed intersection. At worst, they need a push-button flashing yellow, probably a Hawk light. Either way, we made it past there to the riverfront part of the trail. Again, lots of beauty here, but it was hard to take your eyes off of the trail in front of you because the roots that have undergrown this part of the trail have caused massive bumps and ruts. This continued for the entirety of the Niles (city) part of the trail until we reached Fort Street, a little over 2 miles in to the journey. We had decided to ride the hybrids today and not the road bikes. We were very glad we had made that decision.
Once we crossed over Fort Street, we rode along a fairly new section of the trail alongside 3rd Street. This was MUCH better pavement conditions. However, about a half mile down, you are required to cross this very busy street with (again) no lights, no flashers, etc., just on your own with some white paint on the road. Crossing over, you ride a circular trail cut through a nature park, which is nice because it takes you away from this very busy street. (It was our bad luck that a very large tree had come down overnight and forced us to "portage" over this tree! Never had that experience before.) Once back to 3rd St., you hit US12, which is a major road. Fortunately, there are very good pedestrian crossing signals here, and we didn't have any issues in either direction. Crossing this, you are dead-straight North/South for the next 3.5 miles until you are almost on Notre Dame's campus. This is a very nice ride with the exception that there are probably seven or eight cross streets so a lot of stops. Not dangerous crossings, but ones that prevent you from going a nice distance to stretch your legs out.
Once you reach Douglas Road and Business US 31, you are on the NW tip of the campus. Lots of great places to ride there which are not part of this trail, so I won't talk about them here.
Overall, it's a decent trail and the City of Niles is actively working on it, patching many of the bad spots with new pavement, as well as clearing brush and trees that are encroaching, so props to them for their efforts. Unfortunately, there are just SO many place that need fixing, they are fighting a losing battle against those tree roots. We're glad we got to finally experience this trail. Unfortunately, its lack of facilities and poor pavement quality make it a three-star at best, and that's only to the south of Niles. North of Fort St, no more than two.
Have always loved this trail. Peaceful ride. Only thing is we just went down it on 7/6/2024. It needs a lot of repairs soon or it isn't going to last long. Sad because we love riding this trail.
5 mile circle of Wolf Lake and Lake George . The 3.5 miles along Wolf Lake are lovely. The West side goes parallel to Toll Road but you are mostly hidden by reeds and brush. Can extend up to Lake Michigan for 1 mile lake front ride. Makes over all ride about 8 or 9 miles. Lots of parking at Hammond Wolf Lakefront.
This is such a nice trail. Part of it is nice and secluded while other parts are next to the road. It's definitely worth riding.
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