Find the top rated birding trails in East Grand Rapids, whether you're looking for an easy short birding trail or a long birding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a birding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Not a bad ride for locals. Drove a couple hours to ride here. To be clear, this is mostly a paved path by the road with houses you ride by. You only have a few lake overlooks. Was hoping for much more lake and a lot less riding through what felt like a woody housing addition
We left Montague and ode to Hart. Spent the night at the Dunes Express and then rode back to Montague. We are just novice riders, but really enjoyed this ride. Well-maintained, fairly flat terrain. There are several small towns along the way so it kind of made the trip go faster as we set goals. Country Dairy was the highlight of the trip though. Oh my goodness....the ice cream was out of this world- I love my ice cream! But the farm itself was gorgeous. The people we met along the way were very friendly. The dunes express was a nice overnight too. But don’t be fooled...the dunes are not “right there”. We though we would arrive at the hotel and walk to the lake for the day- nope- 7 more miles! We will absolutely be returning!
A mix of river trail with city trail but the opportunity to pass through the Baldwin Lake is really awesome. My wife and I really enjoyed this trail.
This is a very beautiful trail. Lots of shade and nature. We liked the crushed stone. It was less bumpy than some of the paved trails. We did 30 miles from Grand Junction to just past Kendall and back today. Bloomingdale has a nice little depot museum to stop and look through. Lots of history there. And Gobles has a some good food options. Really enjoyed it.
We rode out 16 miles from South Haven at the beginning of the trail head. Although the trail was pretty, it was very monotonous. The total trip was 33 miles (we did not go all the way to Kalamazoo). I thought there would be towns that we could get off at and explore a bit, or grab a bite to eat or have coffee...but there was nothing. We should of investigated the trail further before beginning.
Beautiful trail, with lots of trees, river and wonderful views. One of the best I have ever ridden.
I ride this trail several times per week. Today was from muskegon to where white pine connector picks up and back again. 50 miles. Most of the trail needs resurfacing...bad. The stretch from muskegon to ravenna isn't "that" bad but needs attention. The section of the trail running east from ravenna to white pine connector is some of the worst road-bike riding I've done. The trail is pitted beyond spot repairs and the cracks are so deep and large that you feel like you're going to flat every time you roll over one. And, these fissures occur every 10 feet! I don't know where the funding comes from to maintain the Muskatawa trail so I cannot make any specific non-ignorant suggestions. The grass is maintained on the sides of the trail and again I have no idea where these funds come from either. I wish that more of that money was used for trail surface reconditioning though. I cannot complain too much because I ride long miles and this trail is the only one around me unless I expect to travel.
We did about 20 miles and it was very nice some parts have heavy traffic but most is separate and nice. Would do it again for sure!
We like to trail ride at a leisurely pace, targeting 20-30 miles. We have previously ridden From Comstock Park to Sand Lake, and found the trail enjoyable and well maintained.
This trip we started in Big Rapids, parking on the south end of the Big Rapids Riverwalk trail. This trail follows and crosses Muskegon River and connect in 3 places to the White Pines trail.
The ride north was nice following the river part of the way. The grade to the north is predominately up. Between a wind from the north and the grade, north was a bit of a work out, but the return trip saw our average speed double.
Would recommend riding south to north on this section if you are planning a round trip.
The new southern extension has made this into one of my favorite trails. The paved surface is near perfect and it is lightly traveled, in contrast to the White Pine Trail which runs parallel to the east. You can now ride from downtown Muskegon all the way to Hart on paved trails off the roadways. This portion is remote and very quiet with only a few houses in the distance.
The northern extension (White Lake Pathway) into Whitehall and the southern extension into North Muskegon are very scenic, curvy and shady. This is a family friendly trail crossing only 3 busy roads. During the summer in the afternoons and evenings the "Shivering Timbers" roller coaster at Michigan's Adventure comes within a few yards of the trail and provides a welcome distraction for kids on the otherwise long boring straight stretch. Early and late in the day even this central portion of the trail is somewhat shaded.
The down side of the remoteness of this trail is the total lack of signage, mile markers, access to water, or toilets. The very bicycle friendly First Evangelical Lutheran Church or the fast food place south of it are the last potential pit stops on the south end. The White Lake Public Library is a perfect pit stop on the White Lake Pathway northern extension but easy to miss in the woods--there is a short paved spur going off near the 2 boardwalk sections.
Rode 50 mile on the Fred Meijer Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee Trail. I started in Ovid and turned around in Pewamo. The trail had about 1-2 miles paved through Ovid, St. John, Fowler, and Pewamo the remained of the trail was gravel, crushed lime stone. The trail condition was good and overall smooth without a lot of pot holes and ruts. Even with the overall good condition of the trail the 40 plus miles of gravel was pretty punishing by the end of the ride. One small area outside of Ovid appeared to have very little gravel coverage and may present a problem when wet...potential muddy area. The weather was great for a ride the scenery was great the trail was pretty much through farm lands lots of fields of corn and wheat with old barns and farm houses along the way. My bike was a gravel bike with 38mm tires.
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