Find the top rated horseback riding trails in Iowa, whether you're looking for an easy short horseback riding trail or a long horseback riding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a horseback riding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
_135458_st.jpg)
_21160_st.jpg)
We look for trail segments where we can ride 6-10 miles, then find a meal, then return to our car. The Breda-Carnarvon segment on the Sauk Rail Trail is one such ride. We parked our car on a shady street near the fairgrounds park in Breda. (Breda has at least one store where you can buy provisions) Got on the paved trail and rode 7 miles to Carnarvon, a segment with gentle grades and the bridge approaches are good. Just to the west of the trail in Carnarvon is a bar/cafe, that happened to have a lunch buffet on the day we were there. Its a great trail with well maintained right-of-way. An alternative would have been to ride to Carroll, eat, and return. Or if we had been more ambitious, to ride to Lake City and back. We'll do those rides next time.
This is a nice paved trail with a variety from fields to ball fields to more residential areas to city parks. It isn’t super well marked so having this app helped tremendously. The trail actually extends past 24th to C38 so if you go to the end it’s actually a little longer than stated. Worth the ride!
Overgrown foliage and thorn vines across the path. Bring your own clippers or take another route for access to Clear Creek.
Our family (dad, mom, and 2 kids -- 5 and 8) love to go on bicycle rides on trails in the central part of the country. We have ridden on trails in Kansas, Missouri (our home state), Nebraska and Iowa. Of all the places where we ride (usually "day trips" from our home in northwestern Missouri), the trails in Iowa are our absolute favorite. We are frequent visitors to the High Trestle Trail, and decided to "switch it up" one afternoon (Aug 8, 2021) and try out a trail that we hadn't been on before. We selected the Raccoon River Valley Trail.
With the kids in tow, we don't ride the entire trail. Instead, we usually go out 4 or 5 miles, and then return. We put in at the trailhead in Adel, IA, and headed east about 4 miles before turning around because the kids were getting tired (the furthest they have ridden is about 12 miles total on a ride). Having been on the High Trestle Trail many times, the kids **love** going over the bridges. We weren't disappointed going over the bridge 1 mile east of the Adel trailhead, which goes over the Raccoon River.
The condition of the portion of the trail we rode was just OK. That portion of the trail is paved with asphalt, and there are some dubious patch jobs along the portion of the trail that we rode. I was eager to ride my newly-re-cabled road bike, and the trail was mostly smooth enough for that. But, you better look ahead and pick your path well, because some of those hack patch jobs are pretty rough. Still, it isn't bad enough to detract any stars from what we thought is an outstanding trail.
We paid the daily fee for 2 adults (kids ride free), which helps fund maintenance for the trail. We are definitely not against paying the small fee ($2 per adult per day ... we just put a fiver in the envelope) to help fund the maintenance and upkeep on high quality trails.
After the ride, we stopped at Brickyard Burgers and Brews (1802 Greene St, Adel, Iowa 50003 ... https://adelbrickyard.com/ ... copy the URL and paste it into a new browser tab), which is RIGHT AT the Adel, IA trailhead. They have awesome wood-fired oven baked pizzas, and they were (as my daughter says) DELICIOSO! Out of two large pizzas, we went home with only three pieces remaining ... and the kids split one of those (the only remaining piece from their pizza) on the way home in the truck!
Of the four states we have ridden trails on, the trails in Iowa are our favorite. While most trails are "paved" with chipped gravel, the majority of the trails we've been on in Iowa are paved in either concrete or asphalt. It is a much more enjoyable ride. It may cost a bit more initially, but we can only imagine that it also has lower maintenance costs, since we've witnessed the chipped gravel trails often having "ruts" from people riding after a rain. There is no such issue on the concrete and asphalt paved trails that we've been on. And, by offering a smoother ride, it's not hard to imagine that more people will take advantage of what the trails have to offer, increasing traffic to the towns located along the truly paved trails. I tend to not take my road bike on the chipped gravel trails, fearful of a crash from hitting some loose gravel that will cause me or my bike (or both) serious injury. The fact that I can ride my road bike on these trails is a real plus, and one that I go out of my way to ride on.
All any other state has to do to figure out how to do trails "RIGHT" is look to how Iowa has created their trail system. Keep up the excellent work on the trails, Iowa! You've done it up right!
Concrete and asphalt with lots of ups and downs and turns. Goes through a few parks, there's lots of shade.
Parked where I-74 crosses the river Headed west along the trail but the headwinds were so strong I turned around and went east but ended up in a warehouse district alone so came on back. A well maintained trail with lots of bikers and walkers enjoying it
Very peaceful and beautiful. Short, but nice. Only 4 stars b/c the crushed rock can be soft and uneven in places.
Very peaceful and beautiful ride. Only a couple miles, but very nice. The reason for only 4 stars is that the crushed rock makes a soft and somewhat uneven riding surface.
Great job of clean up on the east end since last fall. Grass area west of Springville is a nice ride even on a hybrid. Last September it was largely impassable with downed trees from the derecho, but looks good now.
We rode the whole trail. A 50 mile round trip, mostly concrete and some asphalt. Flat and smooth. The bridge is worth the ride. Ate lunch in Woodward at the whistling donkey.
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (a non-profit) and we need your support!
Map Search
