Find the top rated trails in Washington, 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.
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Running from East Peoria to Morton, The River Trail of Illinois was resurfaced in summer 2011. From East Peoria, the hiking and biking trail travels southeast along the old Illinois Terminal Railway...
The Hennepin Canal Parkway, administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as a state park, follows an old towpath along a canal opened in 1907 and quickly abandoned due to competition...
The Pekin Park Bike Trail traverses more than 4 miles between Allentown Road and the Illinois River at Pekin bridge. The trail does a loop in Coal Miners' Park and passes through Mineral Springs Park,...
The sprawling Constitution Trail covers more than 46 miles throughout the Bloomington-Normal region. The trail was officially named and dedicated in 1987 in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the...
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Caution: As of August 2017, the trail is closed due to storm washouts from Mile 13.4 to Mile 13.9; this closure is located approximately 2.5 miles north of Princeville in Peoria County. The trail is...
Time spent on the Chenoa Route 66 Prairie Trail is time shared with history. As rail-trails are ones built over the railbeds of earlier train lines, this “road-trail” is one built directly over...
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The El Paso Walking Trail runs along part of an old railroad right-of-way through the town of El Paso, beginning at the city park on the south side of town and ending at a creek north of town among...
The Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail follows the eponymous waterway alongside the Illinois River. The trail runs along the old canal towpath from LaSalle to the historical quarry town of...
Caution: As of August 2017, the trail is closed due to storm washouts from Mile 13.4 to Mile 13.9; this closure is located approximately 2.5 miles north of Princeville in Peoria County. The trail is...
The sprawling Constitution Trail covers more than 46 miles throughout the Bloomington-Normal region. The trail was officially named and dedicated in 1987 in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the...
Running from East Peoria to Morton, The River Trail of Illinois was resurfaced in summer 2011. From East Peoria, the hiking and biking trail travels southeast along the old Illinois Terminal Railway...
The Hennepin Canal Parkway, administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as a state park, follows an old towpath along a canal opened in 1907 and quickly abandoned due to competition...
The Pekin Park Bike Trail traverses more than 4 miles between Allentown Road and the Illinois River at Pekin bridge. The trail does a loop in Coal Miners' Park and passes through Mineral Springs Park,...
The El Paso Walking Trail runs along part of an old railroad right-of-way through the town of El Paso, beginning at the city park on the south side of town and ending at a creek north of town among...
Time spent on the Chenoa Route 66 Prairie Trail is time shared with history. As rail-trails are ones built over the railbeds of earlier train lines, this “road-trail” is one built directly over...
The Hennepin Canal Parkway, administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as a state park, follows an old towpath along a canal opened in 1907 and quickly abandoned due to competition...
Caution: As of August 2017, the trail is closed due to storm washouts from Mile 13.4 to Mile 13.9; this closure is located approximately 2.5 miles north of Princeville in Peoria County. The trail is...
The Pekin Park Bike Trail traverses more than 4 miles between Allentown Road and the Illinois River at Pekin bridge. The trail does a loop in Coal Miners' Park and passes through Mineral Springs Park,...
Time spent on the Chenoa Route 66 Prairie Trail is time shared with history. As rail-trails are ones built over the railbeds of earlier train lines, this “road-trail” is one built directly over...
The Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail follows the eponymous waterway alongside the Illinois River. The trail runs along the old canal towpath from LaSalle to the historical quarry town of...
The sprawling Constitution Trail covers more than 46 miles throughout the Bloomington-Normal region. The trail was officially named and dedicated in 1987 in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the...
Running from East Peoria to Morton, The River Trail of Illinois was resurfaced in summer 2011. From East Peoria, the hiking and biking trail travels southeast along the old Illinois Terminal Railway...
The El Paso Walking Trail runs along part of an old railroad right-of-way through the town of El Paso, beginning at the city park on the south side of town and ending at a creek north of town among...
I guess it’s neighboring Lexington IL that has the ‘official’ Memory Lane of Route 66. But I had memories aplenty when I rode this short trail in Chenoa. I grew up about 80 miles southwest of Chenoa when Route 66 was the best and only way to drive to Chicago or St. Louis. I later lived in Mexico for several years, and most of the miles between here and the border were on Old 66. Ah, stop me now. I have not time enough to tell all my stories of our Mother Road.
It would be easy to view this trail in a negative light. The pavement is a mixed bag. It's not fast and smooth. Maintenance appears to be non-existent. There are hazards. There are snakes (I ran over one) and loads of bugs. You won't find a lot of services, at least at the west end.
But what you also won't find is a lot of people and sometimes that's a good thing. You won't find the type of self-absorbed roadies and triatheletes who sometimes terrorize other trail users by buzzing them at 25 mph. You won't find a lot suburban dog walkers. What you will find are cyclists and runners who genuinely enjoy being out in the natural world. If you like your nature natural instead of Disneyfied, you're gonna love this trail. If you like history, there are a number of locks along the trail. This was once a working canal. A local runner I met on the trail told me that it was the model for the Panama Canal.
I rode from Colona to Geneseo and back on Saturday June 9, 2018. It's a 21 mile round trip. It was muggy but interestingly enough, there were pockets of cooler air, too. The underpass below I80 was dark and flooded...real horror movie stuff. About a mile up, a small bridge was out but someone had carved a bypass and my Salsa Fargo with 29 x 2.25 WTB Rangers handed it just fine. I was surprised at how empty it felt out here. This is a part of the country where it's really hard to get away from civilization, but on this stretch at least, you can. The miles flew by and soon enough I was back at my car.
I've read a number of comments from people who tried to tackle this on road bikes. It's probably doable if you're adept at picking a line, but there are better bikes to choose for this. I got lucky and picked the right one and that no doubt added to my enjoyment. You could ride it on just about anything though. It's just not that rugged. It is pockmarked and goes from mostly paved to mostly unpaved and back many times. Between the mud and berries, my bike was filthy when I got back to the car. Bring a rag and clean it off when you're done or you'll have a mess when you get home.
The moral of the story here is to know what it is you're getting into and plan accordingly. Bring Deet unless you want to be eaten alive. Don't go traipsing through the weeds unless you want to get up close and personal with snakes. You're traversing what is mostly a wild wetland and if my experience was any indication, you'll have it mostly to yourself. That's pretty special in this day and age. Five stars, only because I can't give it six.
We took the trail on bikes from Morton to East Peoria along with a couple young children (7 & 8 years old). Between Morton & Pleasant Hill Rd. we passed several Park District maintenance people cutting grass and none of them nor any sign warned us of a closure in the trail about 1 mile past Pleasant Hill Rd. The trail was barricaded and closed at a point that was near impossible to turn around and go all the way back up the hill to Pleasant Hill Rd. with the small kids. So we had to find our way off the trail and over to Bloomington Rd. and travel the rest of the way (3 or 4 more miles) riding bikes with small children on the weaving road with cars speeding by. For the life of me I cannot figure what kind of demented mind would close a trail a good mile or two from any easy entry or exit point without posting any signs to warn people well in advance who were heading in that direction, forcing people to finish their journey on a main thoroughfare with traffic. But then, this is East Peoria, and I have seen idiocy like this before. Next time we will take the trail in Peoria instead.
Rode the Hennepin canal from Wyanet to the end of trail in Bureau Junction. Took our road bikes and that was not a mistake. We parked at the Bureau Valley Wyanet Elementary school which is about a ½ mile easy ride to the trail. The trail started out as dirt/crushed limestone which made it a bit of a slow go at first. It then changed to old asphalt type material.
7.5 miles from the end there was about a ½ mile of packed down gravel which wasn’t the best to ride on with our road bikes but it was passable. After that stretch it was a combination of old asphalt and some dirt on top of old asphalt.
There were also 2-3 parks along the way with toilets (no running water though). In fact, you should be prepared to ride the whole way with however much food and water you need as there really are no places to stop.
All of it was pretty level and the condition of the surface was decent until the last 2-3 miles. This was still ok for the road bikes but the condition of the surface was just not as good.
I rode Ottawa to LaSalle. Sections of the trail were very rough. Motorbike tracks, moguls and stream remnants made the trail dangerous. The history and the washed out bridge are awesome(see photo).
My husband rode his fat tire bike on the trail this morning between Chestnut St., in Ottawa, and the Buffalo Rock trail parking lot. His goal was to check out the conditions of the trail. He said that it was not fun. He came back via the street. The trail was wet, and the 1/2 mile from Chestnut west, as well as the 1/2 mile from Buffalo Rock east had many piles of dog poop. (There is a parking lot at Buffalo Rock that people use when they walk their dogs.) Seems like the dog walkers do not even bother to sweep the poop piles to the side. That is the least you can do if you are not going to pick it up.
I finally completed the trail in LaSalle last weekend, I had been completing the entire route in segments throughout the summer. Overall, I enjoyed the experience, I liked the historical placards and informative mile markers. Yes, I stopped and read every one of them! I thought it was really well done, and very interesting history of the canal and its construction and usage. Cool grande finale ending up in LaSalle where the packet boat and mule towpath was in full display with the tour.
I started in Lemont where the trail begins, through Lockport (the old canal headquarters) and got through Joliet. A must see is the old Joliet Iron Works, an interesting historical walking tour. The next segment I completed was from Joliet (Rockdale) to Channahon, with beautiful views of the Illinois River. Saw an abundance of varied wildlife as the canal here is wide with plenty of water still left in it. McKinley Woods Park is a nice diversion to take a break. Channahon to Morris was the next segment, again with nice views of barges on the river and the Dresden dam area. From Morris to Marseilles the trail begins to get more woodsy, and at some points the trail goes from crushed limestone to single track dirt. This is where the canal is hard to see, as it has dried up over the years, thus there is less wildlife to see. From Marseilles to Ottawa the trail is still woodsy, but becomes more industrial as you are riding next to train tracks and grain silos along the river for much of it. Ottawa to Utica becomes more scenic as you start to see the St Peters sandstone cliffs at certain points. Finally from Utica to LaSalle you can see much more of this, and the trail ends with a lock with all of its functioning parts, as would have existed back in the day.
I normally ride on much more challenging, tougher and more hilly terrain with my trail bike, so this was a change of pace for me. The trail is in decent shape, but you can tell that it has not been maintained for awhile. There are bridges out in several spots (easy to get around), and fallen trees that you need to lift your bike over. All in all, I would recommend it to the casual rider, seeking an interesting history of the canal from back in the nineteenth century. Happy riding!
Road 60 miles (30 out and back) from trailhead at Rock River in Colona. We brought our road bikes (23mm tires), expecting paved trails. It was slow going, but certainly doable. The trail is definitely in need of repair and maintenance. It is flat, peaceful and quite beautiful. The canal history and artifacts (locks, etc) are a very interesting perk.
Fortunately we packed extra water. We had trouble finding water stops along the way. There was a fountain at the lock (14 miles from the trailhead) but it was not working in late September even though it was almost 90 degrees.
I don't know how anyone could rate this anything but 5 stars. There are sections of this trail (Channahon to Ottawa) that are absolutely breathtaking - especially on a warm fall day when the leaves are turning color. There are long sections of the trail where you are riding between two bodies of water and it is absolutely spectacular. Access the train in Channahon and ride northeast toward Ottawa. You will not regret it!
We rode from Toulon to Dunlap and back. It was a beautiful day and the trail setting is very nice with a mix of woods and fields. The trail was in pretty good shape but you need to be alert for ground squirrel burrows. In the wooded sections there is a fair amount of debris so you need to watch out for the larger branches. It's fun riding but if you get too relaxed you may be jolted back to alertness by a branch or a hole.
The DNR web site lists several closures but there is really only one north of Princeville. Like the previous reviewer we rode around it on county roads to the east and it was no problem. The Toulon to Wyoming section has the worst trail conditions (but is perfectly rideable in spite of the trail closed signs) and we will probably start in Wyoming if we do it again.
We ride hybrids with reasonably wide tires and I'm not sure how much fun it would be on a road bike.
We rode from the trail head at Lock 22 (where CR 300E crosses the canal) up along the feeder canal for about 14 miles. The trail was in good shape for most of the way, mostly paved, and it was enjoyable ride. North of the Rte 92 crossing the trail quality deteriorated markedly and it was single track dirt through weeds and grass. We turned around at Osage Rd because of the trail condition. We tried riding west from Lock 22 but gave up after a little over a mail. It wasn't that bad but it was single track through recently mowed but still pretty high grass.
The first thirteen mile north along the feeder canal was a beautiful fun ride with good trail conditions, nice scenery, and a herons, turtles and jumping fish. We also saw very few other people on the ride. North of that and west of Lock 22 the trail was passable but less fun.
We ride hybrids with pretty wide tires. I'm not sure any of it would be fun on a road bike.
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