Find the top rated birding trails in Kalamazoo, 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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A great ride on this beautiful trail. It’s a little tricky in Kalamazoo proper but other than that it’s very scenic, peaceful and well-maintained.
Just an FYI that there is no parking at 84th Street and Patterson. The parking icon on the map is erroneous.
This a trail that alternates between nature and urban, with urban winning out. It has nice scenery and great round trip
The pavement in the bottom half could be a bit nicer, but all things considered, this trail is pretty decent one, as long as you don't mind a mostly sunny trail with not too much to see here.
The Idema Explorers trail is a long term project to create a greenway connection between Grand Haven and Grand Rapids along the Grand River.
Small sections have been completed but they are not connected.
The most recent section, (Built Summer of 2024) has opened up a great loop trail for riders who want to stay on trails and out of roads.
The new section connects existing trail near M-231 with trail along Mercury drive.
We started our ride at the Connor Bayou county park. Rode continuous trail into Grand Haven. There is a short section of surface streets but sidewalks are availble. You can connect to the Grand Haven Waterfront Trail over the US-31 drawbridge (north on side walk from US-31and Jackson Street),then connect to segment of the Lakeside Trail, which connects to the North Bank Trail. North Bank ends at the Spoonerville trail which brings you back across the Grand River on the M-231 bridge. Short trip on the Idema Explorers trail back to Connor Bayou.
While I look forward to completion of more sections of this trail, this 22 mile loop with 2 river crossings is a great ride.
Parked at the Galesburg Augusta Primary school ¿ Meander from school to the trail ¿ Country like setting transitioned to a road-hugging trail¿ Riding alongside car traffic ¿ The trail was pretty smooth and the wildflowers were in bloom.
The entire trail is very uneven throughout, rough, and with nothing to see, I would urge you either skip this trail or maybe walk it.
This sunny trail has some slight hills and tight curves near the end, after taking you through dense woods and weed fields, so consider giving it a try.
It's a great round trip, and it can open up to the sun & wind and other times plant life closes in for some shade.
While smooth, most of the trail is ballast & crushed stone, which for me made it very hard to keep my speed up.
I might consider skipping this one and looking elsewhere.
Traveled from Pennsylvania to ride this trail since we found out about it on TrailLink. We stayed at a local hotel. Trail is paved the entire length from Goshen to Shipshewana. A local told me they just finished paving the last crushed stone section. Trail goes through a few small towns which offers services. We ate lunch in Middlebury. Shipshewana offers many great shops and restaurants. This is in an Amish community. Small hill at mile 2.5. Most of the scenery is flat and open through farms but there are a few wooded sections of the trail as well. Worth driving 5 hours to get to and making it a getaway. Trail was busy for a Saturday but not crowded. Friendly folks along the way. We were lucky to have such great weather too!
Bird poop is common throughout this trail, especially by American Park, to the point you might want to only walk that segment instead of riding a bike.
Pavement is mostly smooth, though American Park turns into loose stone for a stretch, and overall scenery is good for the trail.
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