Find the top rated birding trails in Sioux Falls, 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.
While the part of the trail on the Woodstock is freshly paved, the first 10 miles or so from Pipestone to the east are in pretty rough shape. You will damage your bike if you're not careful and paying attention to the worst of the cracks. Trails like this are what make me appreciate the crushed limestone approach to trail building.
This is the back bone of Sioux Falls ¿ Plus falls park. Lol Had a family ride enjoyed it very much Other than it was a hot day Easy ride if you go the right direction One hill and it’s not all that bad Seen lots of wild life along the river You ride all the way around town but you really don’t seen much of it which to me make it very nice Nice rest areas with water
June 1st started at Woodstock MN , brand new paved trail going east tward Pipestone. First 2.5 miles perfect new surfaced trail, second 2,5 miles not new asphalt but smooth. Then the next 5 miles to Pipestone Wes asphalt with cracks all the way. Expect your bike to have rattles and your perineum to be jolted on this section. From Pipestone rode brand new concrete sidewalk trail surrounding the National Monument. Beautiful. Back to Woodstock, 19 miles total. Parked at City Park, one room bathroom, very clean. Bar and grill downtown recommended by a friend looked nice,
I rode the trail yesterday with my bride of 42 years, Kari and dear friends Coleen and Steve, who experienced the trail on their e-bikes. We started at Falls Park and rode the main loop in a counter clockwise direction. The trail is in great condition and I was amazed to find no at grade crossings on the entire loop (save for a temporary crossing due to construction). The trail shows all that Sioux Falls has to offer and the segments meandering through the city's many parks were particularly enjoyable! I highly recommend this trail!!
My husband and I (and our brother-in-law, a Sheldon resident) rode some of the trail this morning, starting out near the schools and then crossing over Rt18 to ride through some scenic areas — a park, some neighborhoods, lots of trees and even past a cow farm, with an up close view! The trail goes under Highway 18 at the Floyd river, and continues to the community college. We turned around at the fork that would have taken us to the college, and headed back the same way we came. The current trail connects the college, the schools, and parks. Future goals for the trail are to complete it on the south side of the highway, so that it forms a loop all the way around the city. The newest phase loops around the pond right behind Crossroads Pavilion Event Center, near the intersection of H18 & H60 on the east end of town. (This doesn’t show up on the trail map yet.) All of the trail is paved. There are a few areas where you ride on a couple of neighborhood streets until you pick up the trail again. The trail developers have added some really nice touches — benches, a gazebo, an arched entryway at Hills Park created from bricks that were salvaged from Sheldon Middle School. They’ve done a great job, it was an enjoyable ride.
I basically live on this trail.
I have the main 19+ mile loop essentially memorized at this stage.
I don't actually know this to be one of the absolute, ten best-overall urban trails in the Midwest...but I'd be shocked to learn it somehow was not.
I sometimes enjoy going up the hill, just north of Falls Park, but usually I do what most others are likely going to prefer as well ie. circumnavigating the loop in a clockwise direction.
Be careful when passing underneath the pedestrian bridge at Yankton Trail Park. Visibility at that spot is very poor; slow down!
This trail is AMAZING!
It's kinda short, and just far enough away to be a little inconvenient, so I took a long time to get out here...and I feel like a fool.
This is an EXCEPTIONALLY beautiful trail. Ordinarily, you'd have to go to a state park to see something this wondrous, and the fact this is an urban trail, kinda just blows me away. The part of Dell Rapids that one can see from the riverside trail, is more-or-less the cosmic epitome of what a picturesque Midwestern small town ought to look like.
If I lived in Dell Rapids, I'd be on this trail like every day.
Highly recommended!
Some of the complaints about this trail are not entirely invalid...and it should also be noted that not everything needs to be perfect, in order to be worthwhile. Yes, I wish the ashpalt were in somewhat better condition (and I wish it ran all the way to Woodstock.) But the ride is still enjoyable, and worth making. The Casey Jones Trail is the only place on Earth (other than a zoo) where I have seen a soft-shelled turtle.
Google Maps seems to indicate that the ashphalt only runs about halfway to Woodstock, but in my experience, it's a lot more like 3/4ths of the way.
According to the 2020 census, Woodstock only has a population of 110...so you wouldn't really expect there to be cool place like Staci's Bar & Grill, where one can obtain sandwiches & beer. But fortunately, you'd be wrong.
This is a cool little trail. There's a five dollar park entrance fee, however.
Lake Pahoja seems like maybe more of a pond, but it's a pleaseat ride. Very smooth trail. KInd of a short loop, but you can go around it as many times as you like.
This is a very pleasant trail, that affords one some fairly spectacular views of Lake Madison.
Two points of which to be aware: The situation where one must cross South Dakota Highwy 34, in orer to proceed from the pulic parking at 8th & Egan, leaves a lot to be desired. I might be inlined to recommend parking on Washington Avenue South, which is to say, on the southen side of highway 34. You lose almost none of the trail this way, and you avoid the stress of crossing the highway.
Additionally, the map is incomplete ie. the leg of the trail that follows alongside highway 19, actually turns east, and goes at least a mile or more farther than what is indicated here.
We'd read about the Sioux Falls Loop and decided to begin at the southernmost point and ride counterclockwise around the city. We started at Yankton Trail Park, heading east through beautiful parkland for a few miles before turning north at Tuthill Park. Here the trail follows the Big Sioux River, winding along its manicured and tree-lined banks, beside pretty picnic areas and soccer fields that no doubt come alive on the weekends. But it was lovely and quiet during this weekday afternoon; we passed few other bikers on the trail. Comparing the loop to a clock face, we started at 6 o'clock, then at roughly 3 o'clock, we came upon the falls for which the city is named. The falls are more like a scenic series of rocky cascades bordered by grassy parklands and the brick ruins of a former mill. It was very dramatic and beautiful. Immediately north of Falls Park, outside of the loop, is the Smithfield Foods, Inc., a large pork processing plant. Even from a distance of half a mile, the smell was offensive, and we tried to ride past as quickly as possible. We headed uphill (the only hill on the loop) through a small set of switchbacks until the trail flattened again atop a levy that divided the river from lumberyards and light industrial areas on the outside of the loop. At this point, the Big Sioux River looks pretty much like a wide, stagnant, tree-less canal. Plus, the trail circumvents the Sioux Falls Regional Airport from 2 o'clock to 10 o'clock, the whole north end and about a third of the entire loop. When we finally arrived at the small bridge that crossed over to the parking lot where we'd started, we realized that we'd unknowingly started at the exact spot where the trail became bucolic to the east and barren to the west. In hindsight, had we started in the other direction and headed up the west side of the loop, we would have sped downhill past Smithfield and had the lovely, shaded park area to pedal through for the second half of our ride. There's a really great local brewery a short drive from the Yankton Trail Park.
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (a non-profit) and we need your support!
Scan the QR code to get TrailLink on your phone
Map Search
