Find the top rated bike trails in Ithaca, whether you're looking for an easy short bike trail or a long bike trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a bike trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
When complete, the Erie Canalway Trail will run for 360 miles in upstate New York—from Buffalo in the west to Albany in the east—linking many other communities along the way, including Rochester,...
The South Hill Recreation Way follows the southern rim of the Six Mile Creek gorge from the outskirts of southeast Ithaca to Burns Road, near the Ithaca Reservoir. The gravel path follows the former...
If you are near Corning, New York, and need a nice walk, check out this charming respite. The Painted Post Trail connects schools, playgrounds, other trails and residential neighborhoods west of...
The Cayuga-Seneca Canalway Trail is a 5-mile pathway beginning in Waterloo, New York and terminating at Seneca Lake State Park. The roadbed it uses was constructed by the Seneca County Railway...
The South Trail stretches over 2 miles between Ballina Rd. and New Woodstock in Cazenovia, New York. The trail sits on the former right-of-way of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The rail-trail takes users...
The Vestal Rail Trail runs for nearly four miles through the town of Vestal along an abandoned right-of-way once used by the Delaware–Lackawana & Western Railroad. Today, the 12-foot-wide trail is...
The Lackawanna Rail Trail traces a short stretch of the old Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad from Lowman to Elmira in southern New York. Much of it follows the meandering Chemung River, meaning...
The Keuka Outlet Trail offers a sinuous route of nearly 7 miles between Penn Yan and Dresden in New York’s Finger Lakes region. The rail-trail follows a railroad corridor that traced a former canal...
Bear Trap Creek Bikeway follows the creek of the same name between Ley Creek Drive and the Mattydale Shopping Plaza. For most of its length it parallels Interstate 81, with a fence separating the...
Enjoy a smooth ride along the Catharine Valley Trail, a well-maintained multiuse pathway that provides a comfortable and shaded biking experience through Upstate New York. High points include entering...
The East Ithaca Recreation Way on East Hill is primarily built upon the rail bed of the old Ithaca and Cortland Railroad, which later became part of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The trail skirts the...
Bear Trap Creek Bikeway follows the creek of the same name between Ley Creek Drive and the Mattydale Shopping Plaza. For most of its length it parallels Interstate 81, with a fence separating the...
The South Hill Recreation Way follows the southern rim of the Six Mile Creek gorge from the outskirts of southeast Ithaca to Burns Road, near the Ithaca Reservoir. The gravel path follows the former...
Enjoy a smooth ride along the Catharine Valley Trail, a well-maintained multiuse pathway that provides a comfortable and shaded biking experience through Upstate New York. High points include entering...
The Vestal Rail Trail runs for nearly four miles through the town of Vestal along an abandoned right-of-way once used by the Delaware–Lackawana & Western Railroad. Today, the 12-foot-wide trail is...
The South Trail stretches over 2 miles between Ballina Rd. and New Woodstock in Cazenovia, New York. The trail sits on the former right-of-way of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The rail-trail takes users...
The Cayuga-Seneca Canalway Trail is a 5-mile pathway beginning in Waterloo, New York and terminating at Seneca Lake State Park. The roadbed it uses was constructed by the Seneca County Railway...
If you are near Corning, New York, and need a nice walk, check out this charming respite. The Painted Post Trail connects schools, playgrounds, other trails and residential neighborhoods west of...
When complete, the Erie Canalway Trail will run for 360 miles in upstate New York—from Buffalo in the west to Albany in the east—linking many other communities along the way, including Rochester,...
The Lackawanna Rail Trail traces a short stretch of the old Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad from Lowman to Elmira in southern New York. Much of it follows the meandering Chemung River, meaning...
The Keuka Outlet Trail offers a sinuous route of nearly 7 miles between Penn Yan and Dresden in New York’s Finger Lakes region. The rail-trail follows a railroad corridor that traced a former canal...
The East Ithaca Recreation Way on East Hill is primarily built upon the rail bed of the old Ithaca and Cortland Railroad, which later became part of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The trail skirts the...
The Vestal Rail Trail runs for nearly four miles through the town of Vestal along an abandoned right-of-way once used by the Delaware–Lackawana & Western Railroad. Today, the 12-foot-wide trail is...
The Cayuga-Seneca Canalway Trail is a 5-mile pathway beginning in Waterloo, New York and terminating at Seneca Lake State Park. The roadbed it uses was constructed by the Seneca County Railway...
Bear Trap Creek Bikeway follows the creek of the same name between Ley Creek Drive and the Mattydale Shopping Plaza. For most of its length it parallels Interstate 81, with a fence separating the...
When complete, the Erie Canalway Trail will run for 360 miles in upstate New York—from Buffalo in the west to Albany in the east—linking many other communities along the way, including Rochester,...
If you are near Corning, New York, and need a nice walk, check out this charming respite. The Painted Post Trail connects schools, playgrounds, other trails and residential neighborhoods west of...
The South Trail stretches over 2 miles between Ballina Rd. and New Woodstock in Cazenovia, New York. The trail sits on the former right-of-way of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The rail-trail takes users...
The Keuka Outlet Trail offers a sinuous route of nearly 7 miles between Penn Yan and Dresden in New York’s Finger Lakes region. The rail-trail follows a railroad corridor that traced a former canal...
The Lackawanna Rail Trail traces a short stretch of the old Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad from Lowman to Elmira in southern New York. Much of it follows the meandering Chemung River, meaning...
The South Hill Recreation Way follows the southern rim of the Six Mile Creek gorge from the outskirts of southeast Ithaca to Burns Road, near the Ithaca Reservoir. The gravel path follows the former...
The East Ithaca Recreation Way on East Hill is primarily built upon the rail bed of the old Ithaca and Cortland Railroad, which later became part of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The trail skirts the...
Enjoy a smooth ride along the Catharine Valley Trail, a well-maintained multiuse pathway that provides a comfortable and shaded biking experience through Upstate New York. High points include entering...
I would rate this trail a 5 for its excellent condition, but I have to give it a 4 because the pretty views were blocked by the woods. Easy parking at Lock 4 in Waterloo. The "tunnel" walkway under the highway at the Seneca Lake State Park is open so you can ride right through the park and along the waterfront of Seneca Lake into Geneva. This is a really nice ride for an afternoon, peaceful and showing how nice Upstate New York can be,
Did the entire 23 mile trail to Canandaigua and back… definitely recommend a mountain bike or as I have, a decent front suspension on a hybrid with knobby size 40 tires. The final 7 miles(16-23) to Canandaigua are the best ride with mostly smoothish dirt. The roughest part are miles 11-16 to Canandaigua… spine jarring and butt banging… mostly grass and fairly rough 12 inch wide single trail over that stretch. Be prepared for fairly slow 7-8mph going… I tend to average 15 to 16 mph on the mixed gravel/pavement of the Erie canal trail between Fairport and Brockport… I averaged only about 10mph on this 46 mi. round trip. But nice scenery and time on Canandaigua lake is worth the effort as a pitstop
This trail is well maintained, scenic and a real jewel. One important thing - the trail is uphill from Cass Park in Ithaca. We started there and I'm glad we did, because it made our return trip a downhill nice and easy. Be sure to find the Falls Lookout at Taughannock Falls State Park.
My wife and I are from Harrisburg Pennsylvania and we are in Ithaca for a week to spend our vacation with her parents. Since we are here for a week we brought our bikes. My wife was born here and knows the terrain of the area. She was very hesitant to do this trail because of the hilly terrain in the area. I found the trail through this app. It is just like the reviews said gorgeous with a slight incline on the way up, 400ft in 8 miles. The trail was hard packed and smooth with gorgeous views and scenery. We started at Cass park and rode the 8 miles to the gorge. Coming back down was a breeze. I highly recommend this trail.
great trail!! there was really no bumps in the asphalt. it’s just hard to see the rivers/creeks because of the trees.
Great trail. Started in Watkins Glen and rode south to the very end, past where trail ends on the app. Last section pretty rough, so you won’t miss much if you don’t do it.
Signage coming into Rome traveling east, or leaving Rome traveling west, is non-existent. Expect to travel on busy city roads. Trail Links is a bit better than the Erie Canalway booklet in navigating this, but it’s still a challenge. Lots of construction in Utica and the trail east of Leland Ave is closed.
We rode this trail from the Seneca Lake State Park in Geneva to Waterloo and enjoyed it a great deal. Some people have said the trail is hard to find, and I think it was two years ago when we were first there. This time, though, it was simple: We entered the park at the main drive (Park Rd) off of Route 20. It costs (as of May 2021) $7 to park for 24 hours, and there is a kiosk at the entrance where you pay and get a ticket to put on your dashboard. We could have parked for free in the visitor's center, I suppose, but we thought $7 was a fair price to pay to help support the New York Park System, especially since we're not NY taxpayers.
Once we got our ticket we followed the road to the left until we saw the sign for the trail access. Just beyond it there was parking. We could have parked anywhere there--could have parked at the Welcome Center as well--and ridden the paved road along the waterfront, but we chose to ride that part the next morning. We just wanted to get on the trail since they were predicting rain.
We followed the signs to the trail. Don't be discouraged by the path that leads to the trail itself--it is ballast (difficult for me to ride in) followed by a boardwalk type of path that leads over the railroad track and under the highway. It's not bad, but I was envisioning an entire trail like this and wasn't thrilled. After we got past that very short section, though, the trail became packed limestone dust and it was a joy to ride on. Good exercise but not over-challenging for two folks in their early 60s with hybrid bikes. From this point to Waterloo is only about 4.5 to 5 miles. (Apparently the 10 mile distance shown in TrailLink includes the paved path around the north end of Seneca Lake.
We road to Waterloo, saw the canal lock, and rode back on a nice level, well-maintained trail. It should be said that the trail rises slightly from Waterloo to Geneva, so the return trip was slightly more strenuous than the outbound trip, but the incline really is very slight.
Just as we got back to Geneva it began to rain so we left for the day. We returned the next morning (we still had time left on our parking pass) and bicycled along the northern end of Seneca Lake. It's a wide, asphalt path that was quiet in the morning (a few joggers). The views were lovely and we rode the length twice. At one end (beyond the visitor's center) there is a tunnel that leads under the road and into Geneva, so if you wanted to ride into town it would be easy. The visitor's center itself, by the way, is lovely with good food and a lot of places to sit and just enjoy the lake view.
The creek is pretty nice, but overshadowed most of the way by the adjacent noisy interstate. Also, much of the asphalt has tree roots running under it, causing the trail to be quite bumpy.
We found it very difficult to find the trail. We picked it up in Eldridge Park but it was poorly marked. Had to bike through residential neighborhoods. It isn't very scenic due to running parallel to I-86 and the traffic is noisy. Wooded on 1 side mostly but some spots it was on both sides. Loved the pavement. It's in excellent shape and effort is the same going in either direction, in my opinion. Will definitely ride again.
So much to see. Old mill, waterfalls and the creek is beautiful. There are places to stop and rest and picnic. Portable toilets available along the way. Great ride. Definitely will ride again.
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (a non-profit) and we need your support!
Map Search
