Explore the best rated trails in Willmar, MN. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Dairyland Trail and Luce Line Trail. With more than 7 trails covering 196 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.
As fans of public radio can tell you, this trail’s namesake is the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, made famous by author and radio personality Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion. Along the...
Minnesota’s Rocori Trail, named for the three small towns through which it will eventually run (Rockville, Cold Spring, and Richmond), currently has two disconnected segments open for use. The...
The Glacial Ridge Bike Trail, also known as the Villard-Starbuck Trail, is a paved multi-use trail that takes users through a picturesque stretch of Western Minnesota farmland near Lake Minnewaska....
The Luce Line Trail occupies the former railbed of the Electric Short Line Railroad, started in 1908. The tracks continued to be expanded into the late 1920s, when the rail line became known as the...
The 22-mile original section of the paved Glacial Lakes State Trail follows the former right-of-way of the Burlington Northern Railroad between Willmar and about 1 mile west of Paynesville at...
When complete, the Minnesota River State Trail will stretch from Big Stone Lake State Park north of Ortonville to Le Sueur, a distance of more than 175 miles. Currently, three disconnected segments of...
Phase one of the development of central Minnesota’s Dairyland Trail was completed in April 2013, allowing trail users to hike, bike, or ride a horse for more than 6 miles between the small towns of...
The 22-mile original section of the paved Glacial Lakes State Trail follows the former right-of-way of the Burlington Northern Railroad between Willmar and about 1 mile west of Paynesville at...
Minnesota’s Rocori Trail, named for the three small towns through which it will eventually run (Rockville, Cold Spring, and Richmond), currently has two disconnected segments open for use. The...
The Luce Line Trail occupies the former railbed of the Electric Short Line Railroad, started in 1908. The tracks continued to be expanded into the late 1920s, when the rail line became known as the...
When complete, the Minnesota River State Trail will stretch from Big Stone Lake State Park north of Ortonville to Le Sueur, a distance of more than 175 miles. Currently, three disconnected segments of...
The Glacial Ridge Bike Trail, also known as the Villard-Starbuck Trail, is a paved multi-use trail that takes users through a picturesque stretch of Western Minnesota farmland near Lake Minnewaska....
Phase one of the development of central Minnesota’s Dairyland Trail was completed in April 2013, allowing trail users to hike, bike, or ride a horse for more than 6 miles between the small towns of...
As fans of public radio can tell you, this trail’s namesake is the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, made famous by author and radio personality Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion. Along the...
The Glacial Ridge Bike Trail, also known as the Villard-Starbuck Trail, is a paved multi-use trail that takes users through a picturesque stretch of Western Minnesota farmland near Lake Minnewaska....
The Luce Line Trail occupies the former railbed of the Electric Short Line Railroad, started in 1908. The tracks continued to be expanded into the late 1920s, when the rail line became known as the...
Minnesota’s Rocori Trail, named for the three small towns through which it will eventually run (Rockville, Cold Spring, and Richmond), currently has two disconnected segments open for use. The...
When complete, the Minnesota River State Trail will stretch from Big Stone Lake State Park north of Ortonville to Le Sueur, a distance of more than 175 miles. Currently, three disconnected segments of...
As fans of public radio can tell you, this trail’s namesake is the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, made famous by author and radio personality Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion. Along the...
Phase one of the development of central Minnesota’s Dairyland Trail was completed in April 2013, allowing trail users to hike, bike, or ride a horse for more than 6 miles between the small towns of...
The 22-mile original section of the paved Glacial Lakes State Trail follows the former right-of-way of the Burlington Northern Railroad between Willmar and about 1 mile west of Paynesville at...
Luce line is now paved from Cty Rd 1 in Winstead along the airport runway and reconnects to the existing trail.
Great ride out of St Joseph’s to Albany, pick up the Soo line and ride to the covered bridge. Round trip ride is right at 50 miles of fairly flat and straight, well maintained asphalt trail. Few road crossings and wide path in scenic farm country. Everything you would expect from a rural trail - but in great condition!
We ride the Lake Wobegone trail at least annually. This year we've been riding twice! We usually start in St. Joseph at the the trailhead, and bike to Albany, and then turn and ride to Holdingford. The trail and towns along the way have nice resting areas with bathrooms and drinking fountains to refill your water bottle. This route is very peaceful-small towns, lakes, and countryside. The Lake Wobegone trail also continues from Holdingford to Bowlus. At one point, the trail switches to the Soo Line trail. This route goes on to just north of Royalton. We've started at the Royalton (Soo Line) access off Highway 10 and ridden the trail in reverse. We've also been on the trail starting at Sauk Center and biked to Osakis where it links to the Central Lakes Trail. More beautiful views of Minnesota. Minnesota is not just the Land of 10,000 lakes, but the home of many great biketrails!!!
Trail is closed just north of Willmar - very soft trail at about 5 miles out. Trail from Spicer to Paynesville is great
Rode from mile 90 to 85 and back on a cross country car trip. A very pleasant break and a trail I would like to come back to and ride more.
This is one of my favorite trails in the city. Park at the parking lot at Stubbs Bay and bike 10 miles to Watertown. Mario's is a great cafe stop before turning back. The trail is not crowded and offers beautiful views of farms, small lakes and woodlands. Some day I want to ride west of Watertown and see what Winston is like.
Last October, the section from Winsted to Hutchinson was paved. It's a great route. One hiccup to get around is small unfinished portion just west of town. The ride to Hutchinson is great. Stop by the Crow River Winery on your way in to town. Then use the miles of trails and bike routes throughout the city.
On March 12, 2016 my wife, our 8 year old daughters and I rode bike from Willmar to Spicer. Smooth 6 mile ride. We crossed a few gravel roads, but traffic was not a concern. The Highway 23 underpass eliminates the worry of crossing a busy highway. We stopped at Subway, a few feet off the trail, in Spicer. After lunch we turned around and traveled back to Willmar. Our daughters handled the ride very well. They did last year at 7 also. They have good bikes from Rick's Cycling in Willmar, not discount store, bikes.
Overall great little trip, get out and ride, they grow up fast.
This is a great new paved segment (~20 miles) of the Luce Line but it's kinda separated from the metro Luce. Hutchinson has done a nice job with parks & city trails as well as underpasses/bridges. There's also a nice city park in Hutch for camping. The day I did it they were working on intersections putting in concrete aprons.
The Winsted end is a mess. The trail abruptly ends a little west of Winsted with no signs specifying where to go. I went on a loose gravel road to get into town. East of Winsted it's a mix or loose gravel, dirt ... a slow go.
We have been on a mission to bike all the state managed bike trails in MN. This trail was somewhat disappointing compared to many others. After reading some of the other reviews I would agree that it does not have many of the amenities we have come to expect like benches/ porta potties at rest stops. We biked only the portion from Paynesville to New London since it was the closest point for us. We could not even find a decent start point in Paynesville. We parked next to the cemetery on a pulloff spot because there was no parking at all at the 'trailhead' indicated on the map. I suppose there may have been other spots including the high school that a person could choose but not knowing the area we had no idea. I would describe the trail to New London as:
A very nice, smooth surface
Pretty but next to a busy road quite a bit
Mostly uphill
Not much tree cover
Appreciated the trailhead in Hawick with parking and potty (we should have started here)
Found the trailhead at the end in New London to be lacking. They seem to be working on it still but it was very exposed. We went past it into town and the 'rest stop' indicated was a convenience store with a picnic table behind it next to the dumpster.
In summary I would say that it is not one we will go back to however, I can see by other reviews that the Spicer end near Green Lake might have been more enjoyable.
We only rode 7-8 miles from Theodore Wirth to Medicine Lake and back but it was a pretty trail, interesting and mostly well maintained and marked
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