Find the top rated bike trails in Racine, 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.
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The Milwaukee RiverWalk provides a pleasant way to get around Milwaukee from the Historic Third Ward, through downtown, and north to the Lower East Side. It also has easy connections to three other...
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The the Fox River Trail (FRT) was built on stretches of three former railroads: Chicago, Aurora & Elgin; Aurora, Elgin, & Fox River Electric; and Chicago & North Western. Today, it hosts a multitude...
The Techny Trail links downtown Glenview, a charming village northwest of Chicago, with the Techny Basin, a scenic wetlands area adjacent to the West Fork of the Chicago River's North Branch....
Broad blue skies strung with white cloud wisps; gem-green fields harboring cattails and butterflies; canopied glens giving way to cavernous quarries. It's all part of the ride on the Bugline...
The 53-mile Glacial Drumlin State Trail between Cottage Grove and Waukesha provides a glimpse into the past when glaciers bore down on southeastern Wisconsin in the last Ice Age. Those gigantic sheets...
The Kenosha County Bike Trail is open in two sections separated by dense neighborhoods in the City of Kenosha. The northern segment runs northeast from 35th Street in the city to 1st Street at the...
The Busse Woods Trail system is located within Ned Brown Forest Preserve, a 3,700-acre property in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. There are 11.2 miles of paved trails for cyclists, equestrians...
The Muskego Recreation Trail follows a corridor originally used by the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light, an interurban railroad in southeastern Wisconsin. The corridor was later acquired by...
The North Shore Channel Trail extends from the junction of Green Bay Road and McCormick Boulevard in northern Evanston to the junction of Lawrence Avenue and Francisco Avenue in Chicago. All but the...
The Pike River Pathway is a short trail on both sides of the reconstructed Pike River in the Village of Mount Pleasant. The path is convenient to several neighborhoods in the community. Birds, frogs...
The Stone Mill Trail runs between Lawrence Road in Harvard and Maxon Road in Chemung. The 1.5-mile, paved trail mostly parallels County Highway 17 (Ramer Road) and active railroad tracks, and will...
The Poplar Creek Trail is a 9.5-mile paved loop around Poplar Creek Forest Preserve near Hoffman Estates. The trail has a couple of hills but is otherwise level and makes for a pleasant journey...
The White River State Trail is composed of two separate segments: a 12-mile stretch that runs between Elkhorn and just west of Burlington in Walworth County, and a 7-mile section that connects the...
The Middlefork Savanna Forest Preserve is a natural gem hidden in an high-income neighborhood of Lake Forest, Illinois. Those 600 acres are home to perhaps the best-preserved example of the rare...
The 13.5-mile Lake Michigan Pathway keeps you in close touch with the sixth-largest freshwater lake in the world as it links rail-trails north and south of the port city of Racine. Along the way, the...
In 1957, baseball legend Hank “The Hammer” Aaron led the Milwaukee Braves to the first of two consecutive World Series appearances and a championship over the usually dominant New York Yankees. In...
The Beerline Trail, so named because the corridor was once used by freight trains transporting the ingredients for beer to some of Milwaukee’s famous breweries, has contributed to the revitalization...
The Chain O' Lakes Bike Path is a paved trail that runs between E. Grand Avenue in Fox Lake and Grant Woods Forest Preserve to the east. The trail parallels the railroad track and Rollins Road/CR 31,...
Moraine Hills State Park Trail offers a wonderful experience for any geology or nature aficionado. A moraine is an accumulation of earth and stones carried and finally deposited by a glacier....
The City of Franklin Hike and Bike Trail follows a corridor originally used by the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light, an interurban railroad in southeastern Wisconsin. The corridor was later acquired...
Meadowbrook Trail parallels Meadowbrook Road offering a useful and convenient off-road route through northwest Waukesha. It begins at a connection to Lake Country Recreation Trail, a 15-mile east-west...
The village of Palatine has connected many of its community assets with two long sections of off-road, multi-use trail. The more popular northern section is the one most references call simply and...
The North Shore Bike Path runs for nearly 8 miles between Lake Bluff and Mundelein, paralleling State Route 176 for the path's entire length. The trail is one of dozens in the Chicagoland area, all of...
The East Northbrook Trail is a 1-mile route through a wooded corridor adjacent to an out-of-service rail corridor in the Village of Northbrook. The trail provides access to residential neighborhoods,...
The 9-mile Green Bay Trail runs parallel to Chicago's Metra commuter rail line north of the Chicago city limits. Stretching through North Shore towns such as Kenilworth, Winnetka, Highland Park and...
The Middlefork Savanna Forest Preserve is a natural gem hidden in an high-income neighborhood of Lake Forest, Illinois. Those 600 acres are home to perhaps the best-preserved example of the rare...
The Paul Douglas and Crabtree Preserve Trail System connects two large nature preserves in northwestern Cook County. The trail begins at the Old Stover Trailhead in the Crabtree Preserve, near the...
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An excellent example of land use in greater Chicago, the entire Skokie Valley Trail corridor is a rail-with-trail, paralleled by double tracks that sit about 40 feet to the west of the trail surface....
About an hour northwest of Chicago, the beautiful Grant Woods Forest Preserve spans more than 1,000 acres, offering an outdoor respite of prairie, woodlands and marshes. The crushed limestone pathway...
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The Fox River Trail runs diagonally along its namesake waterway through Waukesha in southeastern Wisconsin (just outside of Milwaukee). A trailhead at the E.B. Shurts Environmental Education Center in...
The Deer Grove Trail is one of several great Chicagoland trails located in properties of the Forest Preserve of Cook County. Deer Grove is the oldest of all the Cook County preserves. It's comprised...
Although the Phyllis Harmon Path is short, it's an important connector in an east-west bike/ped route between Arlington Heights and Glencoe. Following Dundee Road, the paved trail goes from the Des...
The paved New Berlin Recreation Trail runs straight as an east–west compass bearing for 7 miles through the western Milwaukee suburbs, from New Berlin to Waukesha. While it is void of trestles,...
The White River State Trail is composed of two separate segments: a 12-mile stretch that runs between Elkhorn and just west of Burlington in Walworth County, and a 7-mile section that connects the...
The Racine-Sturtevant Trail runs for 3.5 miles from the western side of Racine to near the eastern edge of the Village of Sturtevant. The trail occupies an abandoned rail corridor for most of its...
The 53-mile Glacial Drumlin State Trail between Cottage Grove and Waukesha provides a glimpse into the past when glaciers bore down on southeastern Wisconsin in the last Ice Age. Those gigantic sheets...
Broad blue skies strung with white cloud wisps; gem-green fields harboring cattails and butterflies; canopied glens giving way to cavernous quarries. It's all part of the ride on the Bugline...
The Robert McClory Bike Path runs the length of Lake County, knitting together a string of communities on the north shore of Chicago all the way to the Wisconsin border. In 1997, the trail was named...
The Prairie Crossing Bike Path is a hard surface trail connecting Mundelein to Grayslake in central Lake County, Illinois. The trail is perpendicular to the 30-plus-mile Millennium Trail, which it...
The Oak Leaf Trail is the jewel in the crown of Milwaukee County’s extensive trail system. The trail meanders for more than 120 miles in and around the city of Milwaukee on a changing terrain of flat...
The Racine-Sturtevant Trail runs for 3.5 miles from the western side of Racine to near the eastern edge of the Village of Sturtevant. The trail occupies an abandoned rail corridor for most of its...
The North Shore Channel Trail extends from the junction of Green Bay Road and McCormick Boulevard in northern Evanston to the junction of Lawrence Avenue and Francisco Avenue in Chicago. All but the...
If you’re going to visit the historical communities that lie just west of Lake Michigan, why not use the former route of the venerable interurban railroad? The Ozaukee Interurban Trail stretches the...
The Cushing Park Road Recreational Trail begins on the western outskirts of Delafield, a small community about 30 miles west of Milwaukee. From Delafield's Main Street, the trail heads south,...
The Chain O' Lakes Bike Path is a paved trail that runs between E. Grand Avenue in Fox Lake and Grant Woods Forest Preserve to the east. The trail parallels the railroad track and Rollins Road/CR 31,...
The paved New Berlin Recreation Trail runs straight as an east–west compass bearing for 7 miles through the western Milwaukee suburbs, from New Berlin to Waukesha. While it is void of trestles,...
Racine County's eastern edge is home to the MRK Trail, a rail-with-trail that extends north from the City of Racine to the Village of Caledonia. Because Racine County standardized its signs several...
Broad blue skies strung with white cloud wisps; gem-green fields harboring cattails and butterflies; canopied glens giving way to cavernous quarries. It's all part of the ride on the Bugline...
The Root River Pathway uses a combination of off-road trail and on-road route to form a crescent around the City of Racine. The trail closely follows the bends of the Root River, making it a great...
Ridgefield Trace currently consists of two short segments open for use. The western section runs from McHenry County College on US 14 in Crystal Lake to just west of N. Oak Street. Active railroad...
The Oak Leaf Trail is the jewel in the crown of Milwaukee County’s extensive trail system. The trail meanders for more than 120 miles in and around the city of Milwaukee on a changing terrain of flat...
The Busse Woods Trail system is located within Ned Brown Forest Preserve, a 3,700-acre property in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. There are 11.2 miles of paved trails for cyclists, equestrians...
The Eisenbahn State Trail gives a nod to Wisconsin’s German heritage in its name—Eisenbahn is German for “railway.” The strict translation, “iron road,” refers to the iron rails originally used as...
The Techny Trail links downtown Glenview, a charming village northwest of Chicago, with the Techny Basin, a scenic wetlands area adjacent to the West Fork of the Chicago River's North Branch....
The Deer Grove Trail is one of several great Chicagoland trails located in properties of the Forest Preserve of Cook County. Deer Grove is the oldest of all the Cook County preserves. It's comprised...
The Kenosha County Bike Trail is open in two sections separated by dense neighborhoods in the City of Kenosha. The northern segment runs northeast from 35th Street in the city to 1st Street at the...
The Union Pacific Recreation Path offers a short route through the Village of Lincolnwood's east side between Devon and Touhy avenues. Following the former Union Pacific Railroad, the rail-trail...
About an hour northwest of Chicago, the beautiful Grant Woods Forest Preserve spans more than 1,000 acres, offering an outdoor respite of prairie, woodlands and marshes. The crushed limestone pathway...
The Lincolnwood Valley Line Trail connects the existing Valley Line Trail (Sauganash Trail) to the Skokie Valley Trail in Cook County. Like the previous segments, this trail occupies a former Union...
Although short, the West Allis Cross Town Connector represents an important start to a future link between three trails in Milwaukee County. Currently, the trail begins at a junction with the New...
We’ve spent many hours on this trail since we started riding a tandem two and a half years ago. We live close the Virgil Gilman trail in Sugar Grove and have spent most of our time on the southern half of the Fox River trail north and south of its junction with the Gilman Trail. The Fox River Trail also connects with the Illinois Prairie Path and its spurs as you venture north of Aurora through Elgin.
Six weeks or so ago we decided that we would try to ride the entire length of the trail and back. We spent the last couple of weeks on the northern section of the trail making sure that we knew our way through the northern half which has a few sections that go around short breaks in the paved trail such as north of State Street in South Elgin and heading south into South Elgin where the trail meets Raymond Street, there is also a junction to the Elgin spur of the Prairie Path. If you cross Raymond Street, you’ll be on the Prairie Path which you can use to go around South Elgin. To stay on the Fox River Trail, do not cross Raymond – go around the corner to the right. Each of these practice runs also included the hilliest section of the trail between South Elgin and Batavia. Tandems are crazy fast downhill due to the mass and aerodynamics but riding up long hills takes a special kind of love!
Yes, the trail can be busy around the towns; especially on weekends. The same reasons we are attracted to this trail also brings out the people walking and families. We thought doing our end to end ride would be better on a Friday but there were a surprising number of folks enjoying the beautiful day with us. We’re just patient with passing and give a thank you as we go by. More so than some other trails, there are many surface crossings so this trail will not boost your average speed, but we find these limitations to be a reasonable trade-off for this well-maintained trail.
The ride yesterday was generally incident free and went according to plan and was our longest ride to date on the tandem. We started out with a rear derailleur skipping issue which was very annoying (you shift more on a tandem than a single) but a quick adjustment at our first rest stop and all was well. The only other issue was a bridge replacement over Poplar Creek just north of South Elgin. Last Sunday there was no sign of construction, but we approached yesterday to find the trail closed. We checked it out to find that the old bridge had been removed but the new one was not yet installed. Fortunately, we found an unofficial detour and continued. Southbound, there was a sign that indicated the trail would be closed through the end of the month.
August 7th. Almost a perfect summer day and definitely perfect for a ride. Did a 30 mile round tripper from just south of Wisconsin line to south of McHenry and back. Condition of trail for that portion was about the best I've ever seen on any trail. Highly recommend parking at the trailhead for the Hebron Trail off Keystone Road at the north end of the trail. Hebron Trail will then take you straight east to hook up with Prairie Trail where you can begin and head south. No problems, well maintained all the way. Passes through several small, medium sized towns on this stretch with McHenry being the biggest. Plenty of access to services, food, water if you need it. Plan is to continue from McHenry on down south for my next leg of this trail. Can't wait to see what's ahead.
I like the canopied forest intermingled with open prairie. I live fairly close to the trail and have frequently ridden the trail from as far south as the city of Des Plaines to as far north as Libertyville. The trail extends farther south and north. For the parts that I ride the trail is mainly dirt, crushed gravel, and paved trails. During heavy rains, it will be washed out in many spots. Even during relatively dry periods, there is standing in several spots on the trail. Heading north from Des Plaines you have to cross railroad tracks. This is the private property of the railroad and they have done many things to dissuade riders from crossing the track. Farther north you have to cross Milwaukee Ave. without a light. Later you have to cross Dundee without a convenient light. You could use any bike on this part of the trail, and I have encountered a few adventurous riders on touring bikes despite some less than ideal conditions for thin tires. Overall it is a spectacular ride, especially when the prairie flowers are blooming.
One of the best bike trails in northern Illinois. Haven’t finished all the trails and look forward to being there again with it’s maintained quiet paths, and very few people using the trails as compared to the Des Plaines river bike path. Love the one way bike paths given the hills, our age and safety concerns. Given the steep hills and the effort it takes to reach the top each hill, I can understand why there are few people on the trails.
Mel & I drove from Raleigh to Milwaukee to see the Braves play the Brewers for a Mon-Wed series. We brought the Tandem bike. On Mon-Tues we rode out 6.2 miles from the west trail end-point to the Three Bridges Park and back. For convenience, We parked @ the Target parking lot. Along this section, The trail is mostly flat, well-paved, and very clean. It passes behind some industrial complexes, the State Fair complex, and some residential subdivisions. The street crossings requiring more care, were few, as the major street intersections utilized trail overpasses! As baseball fans, we felt honored to ride the HANK AARON TRAIL! If I come back with my single trail bike, I would love to ride the entire trail, and also the Oak Leaf Trail which joins up right where we began our ride!
We’ve only done Oswego to Geneva so far but I’m already so impressed. Beautiful well maintained trail. While it’s a great trail for getting a workout in you’ll be torn between it and stopping to take in the amazing scenery.
I recently rode this trail from south of Burlington to Wind Lake round trip. I'll be honest, I thought it would be more scenic than it was, but it didn't disappoint either. The portion through Burlington goes fast as there's plenty to see in the town, including nice views along the river. In between, there are long-winded stretches that don't excite. Think crushed limestone path, lots of sun, and nothing else. Case Eagle Park and Saller Woods were nice, but not a large segment of path either. Heading north you've got a few places to stop for amenities like Rochester, Waterford and Wind Lake, where I chose to stop. I know the trail extends up close to Franklin but I chose to turn around near Muskego Lake. This provided me with a 30+ mile round trip ride. Along the way and I can't recall where it was, is a VFW (or similar entity) that houses a tank, helicopter and a couple of jets. They're right on the path and worth stopping to admire. Cheers.
At less than 10 miles this trail isn't going to be a grand adventure. But take it for what it is, a rolling, scenic, half sun/half canopy trail with views of the forest, street-side, ponds, prairie, and wildlife. My son and I knocked out this path last summer and enjoyed it. Plenty of places to start/end your ride as there are multiple parking areas/parks in the area. On your ride be sure to try and find the lions (2). They roam in the same spot and do not move. Cheers.
I've been riding the FRT from Oswego to South Elgin for over 25 yrs. And there isn't a bad part. Traveling along a scenic river while riding from town to town will please all bikers of any age. The FRT is a string of majestic sites like a huge windmill, island parks, sculptures, Riverboats, picturesque river views, a slew of bike shops, plenty of parks and places to stop. The path runs on both sides of the river and for many stretches on both. The trail itself is always in impeccable condition and varies in traffic from bikers, joggers and walkers. This is one of the best trails in Illinois, if not the best.
Nice trail and well maintained
The trail is paved and used by many in West Bend. As you travel north, the trail is limestone and has loose top gravel that will slow your pace from hard packed limestone. A scenic and tranquil ride from Kewaskum to Eden. I've ridden it several times and will come back.
Great !! Clean! Smooth! Scenic! Shady Wish this was closer to home
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