Find the top rated birding trails in Ionia, 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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I don't know why it's called the River Valley trail since most of it goes right next to the highway, with only occasional views of a river and no valley to be seen. We rode 20 miles starting in Galesburg. The first couple of miles were scenic, through a wooded area but the next 10 miles were along the highway - BORING AND UGLY. When we got to Kalamazoo, we found several detours because of unsafe bridges. That forced us to cross busy highways. While the trail surface was mostly good, the location of the trail was terrible.
This trail is one of those half-urban, half-nature trails. It's a bit difficult to stay on the urban parts, as trail markings are a bit rare, with the trail really hitting its stride in the nature segments.
It's a nice easy ride and a great route for students commuting to and from campus. However, it's kind of squeezed between apartment complexes and residential areas in spots, which kind of cuts into the scenery a bit.
Nice, straight trail. Plenty of places for parking and amenities in each town. I wish it were paved all the way through, but in general the crushed limestone isn't a huge obstacle between towns. Highly recommend!
The sheer length of the trail is what makes it really worthwhile in my opinion. It covers South Lansing, Downtown, Hawk Island Park, Potter Park Zoo, and MSU's campus, which is a nice sampling of Greater Lansing. It's also nicely forested and quite scenic, especially in the fall. With that being said, the downtown stretch and the bit between Aurelius and Kalamazoo are both in need of repair; everything else is pretty much perfect, though!
This is a nice trail, with offshoot branches that help to differentiate it from other trails.
Pavement is mostly sooth except in the last section, what I guess are plant roots cracking upwards the pavement so badly that it actually launched my bum off the seat an inch or two.
This short & smooth trail is a pleasant but very brief through a secluded marsh/wetland spot.
You might want to consider walking this one instead of another mode of transportation, as it's over before it really begins.
Still, I would recommend the trail to anyone looking for one.
There isn't too much to say about this trail except that it's an admittedly smooth ride for bike riders, but other than that, Valhalla doesn't offer interesting to either see or do; so if you aren't a local, I wouldn't bother. The experience is not even 3 full miles (round trip), so it's over before it even begins.
Too bumpy between GR and Belmont for a road bike. Not enjoyable. North of Belmont is great!
We road this trail in October for the leaf viewing. Wonderful! MI trails never disappoint It was a cool day, with people on the trail. The trails are within a park system so I could see it being very busy during the summer season We found the section at Johnson Park (where we parked) to be exciting with its hills and dense woods. As seniors, we bit the bullet and went e-bikes this year, wouldn’t have enjoyed those hills as much if hadn’t.
The trail is paved and mostly flat. Lots of trees and birds. The trail is not busy but there are friendly bikers and walkers along the way.
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