Find the top rated hike trails in Big Rapids, whether you're looking for an easy short hike trail or a long hike trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a hike trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
Per the trails website, the 12 mile section through Ottawa County will be closed all of 2025 for reconstruction. The remainder of the trail should be open, refer to Musketawa Trail website / Facebook page for current information.
Even on a hot day, leaving in the early afternoon, it was a beautiful ride lots of shade lots of Lake breeze and ice cream shops. Really pretty smooth and weld marked if you’re using your all trails app to follow.
Chicagoland biker here who has done many trails in the Midwest (Paul Bunyan in Minnesota, I&M/Hennipan across Illinois, etc). This is a good trail, maybe even a great one. I just completed the entire 92.6 mile route. Couple things-- the trail is AMAZING if you like shade. And for the most part, it's relatively smooth (surface is more coarse/bumpy from Big Rapids north to Reed City). For that reason, a hybrid tire or thicker is probably your best bet. Could be a challenge for road bike enthusiasts. That said, a road bike would be amazing from Cadillac to Reed City, then Big Rapids to Grand Rapids. Also...reminder that you gain elevation going south to north. A better ride, especially if you catch a good northern wind at your back, would be going Cadillac to Grand Rapids. Still, a great experience!
An enjoyable but short trail with iffy pavement and okay scenery.
You get a nice workout with both with some slight hills and a good round trip distance, good scenery, although signage is pretty bad by the Baldwin Lake Beach section until you get past Greenville High School.
There is no longer a gap in the trail between Farwell and Clare so we decided to take a quick ride to check it out! We started at the Clare Depot at W 4th Street and Beech St. The path begins by weaving behind the railroad yard and several small industrial buildings and then follows the road for a mile or so before it becomes quiet and tree lined. It is only 5 miles to the park in downtown Farwell. The return trip to Clare went very quickly because heading east the grade is slightly downhill. We explored the Clare Depot when we got back. Great gift shop with very informative helpful staff!
We tried to access the trail at the Marne trail head and parking lot. The parking lot was full of construction equipment and material and there is a sign that said the Trail is closed until further notice.
This trail is a completely open to the sun, offering views of local businesses, but nothing truly jaw dropping, with a nice round trip. Noise from traffic is the only real downside.
10/10 for getting back to nature. 1/10 for road surface. The roads in Michigan are horrible, so I'm not sure why I thought the paths would be better.
We went camping in Benzonia along the River. Road our bikes and got on the trail in Beulah. We headed West towards Frankfort. The ride past Crystal Lake was beautiful. We stopped on our way back to cool off in the water. There is public access near when you cross 115.
Boy, was I disappointed! Worst rails trails I have ever been on. No upkeep whatsoever, June 7th, 2025.
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