Explore the best rated trails in Topeka, KS. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Burroughs Creek Trail and Linear Park and Kill Creek Streamway Trail . With more than 42 trails covering 347 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.
April 2022 We rode east from Council Grove Ks for about 5 miles of the trail out to the Kaw monument. We have knobby cross over tires on our Pedego’s which handled the gravel just fine. We stayed at the COE campground just north of town and rode the bikes into town and on the try and back. It looks like it would also be fun to ride around town as well as the trail but rainy cold weather limited our riding during our stay in the area. Hoping to go back and ride more of the trail and around council grove.
Beautiful trail but I’m not sure why they didn’t make it a complete circle as it doesn’t really lead to anything.
Rides by Clinton lake, we're you can take a detour and Baker wetlands. Railtrail connects with downtown and several breweries.
My wife dropped me off at mile zero trailhead in Osawatomee and I met her at the depot museum in Ottawa. We then rode to Pamona. Nice ride but a section is closed between Ottawa and Pamona and you must take gravel rodes for a short 3 miles or so.
Mostly fields, river often obscured, north part has a section that is a small trail only big enough for single bike trail. Electric bikes not nimble enough for that section. Looks like fun for mountain bikers.
Another lovely trail in Kansas. We were pleasantly surprised. We started our section in Garnett in mid-late Sept 2022. We drove south from Ottawa due to rain there and when we got to Garnett, the rain and moved on, so we rode south (40 miles return). The parking lot at the old train depot has water and toilets and is a good place to park. There is a delicious Amish run restaurant in town--a must stop for breakfast or lunch. The cycling was great--just watch for some dry cracks in the trail base and some limbs or trees can be down. This section was partly shaded, but more out in the open. Some of the trail was parallel to the north/south highway connecting Ottawa to Iola. Every small town had a nice rest stop complete with toilet and water. Only Garnett had anything worth stopping in, the others were small settlements with residents only (or that's what we saw anyway). The entire trail looks great, and we hope someday to return to do the entire trail from Humboldt to Ottawa.
We rode 2 sections of this trail in mid-late Sept 2022. 1st section--from Council Grove towards Admire and return. It was an extremely hot day (over 100) and we only rode 12-13 miles out and back for a 25 mile ride. Beautifully kept trail. No goat heads and no other cyclists. Gentle incline out with periodic shade and beautiful rolling hills scenery. The worst part is it is so dry that in the center of the trail can be LARGE cracks in the limestone base (up to 3-6" wide and maybe 2-3' in length) and if you're not paying attention, you could take a major tumble. You have to pay attention at all times as the cracks are here and there.
Council Grove has lodging (limited) and grocery for snacks and cold drinks. We were going to stay in CG, but opted to drive to Pomona St Park and stay there for the next section.
2nd section was from Vassar to Ottawa return (around 50 miles). We stayed in the Pomona St Park (~1 mile from trail head) and again, the trail was fabulous. No other cyclists, beautiful country, some riding next to active train tracks, some out in the rolling fields, shade on and off. One 2-lane highway crossing, you MUST watch for cars as they are going 65+. There is a crosswalk where you can push the button and it signals drivers of cyclists crossing, but they will not stop, I'm pretty sure...it's just an alert. Cyclists must stop and heed traffic.
There were a few downed trees in this section blocking the trail, one we could just get around by walking, the 2nd we had to carry our bikes over as the branches were too big for us to move. They need some chain saw volunteers to come in and clean up some of the downed trees. The 3rd, we moved some of the smaller branches out of the way, to clear a path wide enough to pass, but again, a chain saw is badly needed along this section.
Ottawa is a cute town with lodging, food, drink and lots of other trails around town and the Flint Hills connects to the Prairie Spirit running north and south (we did 1 section of this trail also, will leave review under that trails reviews).
There was 2-3 mile stretch just west of Ottawa that the trail is closed and looked to us like it had been for a long time due to the overgrowth. There is a detour, VERY WELL MARKED and is such a short section that it's easy to get back on track. Again watch for the cracks in the trail base, but other than that, a beautiful trail. We'd like to return and do the entire trail from Council Grove to Osawatomie.
Today we rode from trailhead at Arrowhead stadium to end in Lees summit. You have to ride untill you hit trailhead in Pleasant Hill. From there you can ride to Windsor . There you go to Clinton or Machens, that is end to end KATY!
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