This trail is a gem. It crosses the Platte River twice on beautiful bridges. There are shelters with seating along the trail. We even saw a couple of deer running beside us. The trail leaves from the Ft. Kearney Campground and the campground hosts lend campers bicycles for free.

OK, my previous estimate was off a bit. The actual length of the trail from Ft Kearny trail head to Cottonmill Park trail head is 26.98 mi round trip. Your mileage may vary, especially if you take the time to ride through either/both parks.

Also, the Kearney Hike/Bike Trail is much more than just these two end points. There are many branches off the main line that take you around and through the Kearney area, including Harvey Park, Baldwin Park and Yanney Park.

Enjoy.

The trail is complete from Ft Kearny to Cottonmill Park. Approximately 16 miles, one way.

Ride this trail today. It's in great shape.

As per the previous comment, you can't ride to Fort Kearny, but you can ride to the Platte River Road Archway which is worth a stop.

The trail section that curves along the canal is particularly nice.

This is a beautiful walk with a little bit of each kind of scenery found in Nebraska. Past corn fields, ranches, and prairie, you'll want a hat for the sun, but there are also beautiful areas of forest with welcome shade. The surfacing still reaches no further south than SR 66. After that all the way to Marquette, you have to walk on old railroad gravel, a little uncomfortable to the feet, but to many, worth it for the views and serenity.
There is also a lot of wildlife to see along the trail. I saw hawks, deer, rabbits, chipmunks, butterflies, and numerous kinds of songbirds. Of course, the farm animals are present; don't miss the miniature horses that you can see from the trail near Marquette. In season, the wildflowers are a treat as well.
There was active preparation for lengthening the upgraded surfacing when I went through. The main down side to the trail at this time is walking on the big sharp gravel of the old railroad bed. Google Maps needs to catch up with the fact that it's no longer a railroad south of the country club into Marquette.

Crushed white rock surface from the trailhead east of the high school to the Hwy 66 crossing, about two miles. Past that, even walking would be challenging. You might be able to ride a fat bike from Hwy 66 to Hwy 14 but that might even be tough. This is still a beautiful trail and the Bader Bridge is outstanding! Lots of work to be done. Who ever got it this far deserves a big round of applause! I hope the debris along the bridge can get pulled out before it takes out the bridge.

My family traveled to Grand Island, NE for a wedding, we planned on camping & stayed at the KOA just outside of town. We had picked up their city magazine & they mentioned nothing about bike trails in the area. So we looked on this site & found quite the extensive set of trails listed, I think in total it's about 20 miles of trails! It's sad that the city doesn't advertise them to visitors, because they're a very beautiful set of trails!

We combined this one with the John Brownell trail as well. We started from Walmart, which is right by the trail-head. The trails are very flat, well maintained, & paved the entire way, so we could have continued on & on, without even realizing how far we had gone! The Riverway trail goes through countryside, & by the Stuhr museum which is very picturesque, but unfortunately was closed for an extensive period of time, so we couldn't visit it. The John Brownell trails weaves through residential areas & goes through several neat city parks.

It's a shame these trails aren't well advertised or well known, because they were a really nice surprise!

Limestone installation is not yet finished between 28th St in Central City and Hwy 66. A hard surface should be in place by mid-July pending acceptable weather. It's still not ready for bikes or strollers.

You can't get to Fort Kearney on this trail!