Iowa Mountain Biking Trails and Maps

798 Reviews

Looking for the best Mountain Biking trails around Iowa?

Find the top rated mountain biking trails in Iowa, whether you're looking for an easy short mountain biking trail or a long mountain biking trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a mountain biking trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.

City Trails and Maps in Iowa

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Activities
Length
Surfaces
Type
27 Results
Activities
Length
Surfaces
Type

Bear River Recreation Trail

5.6 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone

Copper Creek Trail

0.75 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone

Fairfield Loop Trail

16 mi
State: IA
Concrete, Crushed Stone, Gravel

Fort Dodge Nature Trail

2.6 mi
State: IA
Cinder

Grant Wood Trail (Jones County Segment)

2.7 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone

Great American Rail-Trail

3743.9 mi
State: DC, IA, ID, IL, IN, MD, MT, NE, OH, PA, WA, WV, WY
Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone

Harry Cook Nature Trail

2 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone

Mapleleaf Pathway

1.5 mi
State: IA
Grass, Gravel

Pony Hollow Trail

3.6 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone, Dirt, Grass

Russell White Nature Trail

3.8 mi
State: IA
Ballast, Grass

Solon-Lake Macbride Recreation Trail

5.3 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone

Wabash Trace Nature Trail

63 mi
State: IA
Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone

Cinder Path

13.5 mi
State: IA
Cinder, Crushed Stone

Grant Wood Trail (Linn County Segment)

14.3 mi
State: IA
Asphalt, Grass, Gravel

Heart of Iowa Nature Trail

25.8 mi
State: IA
Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone, Dirt, Grass

Old Creamery Nature Trail

15.3 mi
State: IA
Cinder, Crushed Stone, Gravel

Paint Creek Trail (IA)

2.5 mi
State: IA
Dirt

Pine Lake Trail

2.4 mi
State: IA
Concrete

Pioneer Trail (IA)

11.5 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone

Comet Trail

7 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone, Grass
Accordion

Hoover Nature Trail

27.7 mi
State: IA
Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone, Grass, Gravel

Prairie Land Trail

11.3 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone

Ed Winkel Memorial Trail

4.7 mi
State: IA
Gravel

Galloping Goose Trail (IA)

0.5 mi
State: IA
Ballast, Dirt, Grass

Hubbard Prairie Trail

1.3 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone

Praeri Rail Trail

10.5 mi
State: IA
Crushed Stone, Dirt, Grass

Reumpers Nature Trail

0.3 mi
State: IA
Cinder
Trail Image Trail Name States Length Surface Rating
The Bear River Recreation Trail follows part of the Maquoketa River outside of Spragueville and Preston, through bucolic countryside of woodlands, farms and river lowlands. You can start the trail in...
IA 5.6 mi Crushed Stone
The Copper Creek Trail runs for a short distance from the town of Preston, heading northwest along Copper Creek to meet with the Bear River Recreation Trail. You'll find a nice picnic spot with a...
IA 0.75 mi Crushed Stone
The Fairfield Loop Trail forms a 16-mile ring around the town of Fairfield, mostly in the outlying areas of the countryside. The trail links two major preserves and connects city and county parks....
IA 16 mi Concrete, Crushed Stone, Gravel
The Fort Dodge Nature Trail begins at the city's Snell-Crawford Park and runs northeast for nearly 3 miles. The trail travels adjacent to overhead power lines and crosses a couple of bridges over...
IA 2.6 mi Cinder
Nearly 3 miles of the Grant Wood Trail in Jones County has been constructed so far (2012) along a former Milwaukee Road right-of-way in Marion and Olin. The trail is named for the early 20th-century...
IA 2.7 mi Crushed Stone
Note: This developing route is not yet fully contiguous – it is just over 50% complete. Please refer to the Trail Map for more information on the existing sections of trail, as well as the online...
DC, IA, ID, IL, IN, MD, MT, NE, OH, PA, WA, WV, WY 3743.9 mi Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone
The Harry Cook Nature Trail runs for 2 miles from the edge of the small city of Osage, Iowa to the city's public Spring Park. The trail, which opened in the early 1990s, occupies the bed of an...
IA 2 mi Crushed Stone
The Mapleleaf Pathway is located in the small community of Diagonal, Iowa. The trail occupies an abandoned Chicago and North Western Railway corridor, which once formed part of a larger system that...
IA 1.5 mi Grass, Gravel
The Pony Hollow Trail in the northeastern Iowa city of Elkader offers a scenic route through woodlands and wetlands along the former Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad bed. The western half of...
IA 3.6 mi Crushed Stone, Dirt, Grass
The Russell White Nature Trail runs for nearly 4 miles through a landscape of forest, pasture and prairie and links the tiny community of Lanesboro with open space to the southwest of the town. The...
IA 3.8 mi Ballast, Grass
The Solon–Lake Macbride Recreation Trail runs for 5 miles between the scenic state park and the town of Solon to the east. The popular trail is perfect for cycling or walking and skiing or...
IA 5.3 mi Crushed Stone
Overview The Wabash Trace Nature Trail offers an amazing trip through the rural forests and countryside of southwest Iowa. The trail stretches 63 miles from Council Bluffs (just outside of Omaha,...
IA 63 mi Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone
The Cinder Path in southern Iowa is notable as the state’s first rail-to-trail conversion. Following a shady route past farms and wetlands along the Chariton River between Chariton and Humeston for...
IA 13.5 mi Cinder, Crushed Stone
Running along a former railroad corridor in Linn County, the Grant Wood Trail is being developed in phases. The trail is named for the early 20th-century Iowa artist, perhaps best known for his...
IA 14.3 mi Asphalt, Grass, Gravel
The Heart of Iowa Nature Trail traverses classic Iowa farmland along the former route of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, also known as the Milwaukee Road. The trail transitions...
IA 25.8 mi Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone, Dirt, Grass
The Old Creamery Nature Trail, running between Vinton and Dysart, is so named for the Old Creamery Theater Company building in Garrison, another tiny farm community through which the trail passes. The...
IA 15.3 mi Cinder, Crushed Stone, Gravel
Iowa's Yellow River State Forest contains a sprawling network of hiking, equestrian and bicycle trails. The Paint Creek Trail, which occupies a segment of an abandoned railroad corridor, is the only...
IA 2.5 mi Dirt
The Pine Lake Trail runs through a heavily wooded state park of the same name, which is especially known for its 250-year-old white pine trees. The trail begins at Deer Park, a half mile east of...
IA 2.4 mi Concrete
Central Iowa's Pioneer Trail—which gets its name from the early settlers of Grundy County—is built on a former rail line that once connected the towns of Holland and Reinbeck and the communities in...
IA 11.5 mi Crushed Stone
The Comet Trail is built upon an abandoned right-of-way of the old Chicago Northwestern Railroad. It runs for 7 miles between the town of Conrad (City Park) and just east of Beaman, traversing a...
IA 7 mi Crushed Stone, Grass
Accordion
The Hoover Nature Trail is a developing rail-trail in southeastern Iowa being built on a former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad right-of-way. The trail is named for President Herbert Hoover,...
IA 27.7 mi Asphalt, Concrete, Crushed Stone, Grass, Gravel
The Prairie Land Trail follows an abandoned railroad corridor 11.3 miles between 240th Street in Mason City and Jonquil Avenue in Swaledale. With a surface of crushed limestone, the rail-trail runs...
IA 11.3 mi Crushed Stone
The Ed Winkel Memorial Trail runs for nearly 5 miles from the small town of Sibley in Osceola County, Iowa to just west of the unincorporated community of Allendorf. Offering a hint at much of Iowa's...
IA 4.7 mi Gravel
The Galloping Goose Trail is so called for the nickname of the old railroad that once ran through the area and upon which the trail sits. As of 2012, about 0.5 mile of trail have been built northeast...
IA 0.5 mi Ballast, Dirt, Grass
The Hubbard Prairie Trail is a one-mile rail-trail extending from the northwest edge of the small town of Hubbard in central Iowa to the Meier Wildlife Refuge. The refuge offers a pleasant place to...
IA 1.3 mi Crushed Stone
The Praeri Rail Trail runs on an old section of railroad right-of-way between Zearing and Roland in central Iowa. Sections of the trail near Roland and McCallsburg have a crushed limestone surface,...
IA 10.5 mi Crushed Stone, Dirt, Grass
Although short, the Reumpers Nature Trail runs under a beautiful canopy of trees along the former Chicago Northwestern Railroad in Radcliffe, a small town in central Iowa.
IA 0.3 mi Cinder

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Recent Trail Reviews

Skunk River Trail

quiet trail

November, 2024 by hawkman275_tl

This trail has much less use than others in town. Watch out for the many deer

High Trestle Trail to Raccoon River Valley Trail Connector

Spectacular New Connector Trail from Woodward to Perry

October, 2024 by sringlee

The Woodward-to-Perry Connector in the High Trestle Trail was long planned, requiring new bridges, land acquisition/donation and careful design. The result is spectacular. I rode this today on a cool Autumn day through harvested farm fields and along streams. The views are superb. The trail surface (paved concrete) is top notch. It crosses a few well-marked country roads but otherwise is a dedicated nature trail for hiking and biking. The entire route from Woodward to Perry is separated path except for two blocks of residential side street in Bouton. Although brand new, this trail is seeing use: groups of cyclists went by; numerous hikers and runners were out; and small kids on bikes near Perry were using it. It exits into residential streets in Perry that are well signposted to guide one to downtown or to the other trails beginning in Perry. Hats off to the County board of supervisors and the numerous volunteers and donors who made this happen.

Carlisle Nature Trail

the BIG Hill

October, 2024 by vcu6chqk7n

Great ride but what a big and long hill!

Accordion

Easter Lake Spine Trail

Easter lake spine trail

October, 2024 by vcu6chqk7n

Nice easy flat ride with a lake on one side and housed on the other

Great American Rail-Trail

such a beautiful trail!

October, 2024 by sherryschie

We started in Akron and rode about 18 miles north. Loved it!!!

Heritage Trail (IA)

Best trail I’ve seen this year

October, 2024 by brownlincolnt

Absolutely gorgeous ride with the trail in perfect condition. Unlike other trails, this one is serviced often with repairs being done with crushed gravel instead of sand. They have put multiple new bathroom facilities throughout the trail as well.

Three Rivers Trail

Damaged trail

October, 2024 by d_ochsner

Flood waters earlier this year have damaged a section of trail between Rolfe and Bradgate. East of Melson Park / Pilot Creek Road the trail was some large areas of trail that have been washed out. The trail is virtually unrideable. The bridge over the Des Moines River just west of Bradgate has been cleared and is open. But my estimate is there are several hundred years of trail that have been washed out. I’d suggest either of the short road options between Melson Park & Bradgate

Chichaqua Valley Trail

Great trail

October, 2024 by dpate

I rode the Chichaqua Trail in early October 2024. From the southwest end to 88th street east of Bondurant is smooth cement. There is parking and a restroom at 88th st where it changed to asphalt with a few minor issues. The worst part was between Ira and Baxter. Just watch for cracks. Some bad spots are paint marked. Overall a great long trail away from noise and traffic that I would highly recommend riding. I give it 5 stars! Traveling cyclist Facebook

Cedar View Trail

Cedar View Trail

September, 2024 by dpate

I found this trail while riding the Fairfield loop that it intersects with on the south side. It’s a nice well packed crushed stone trail with a couple nice bridges and a pit toilet along with benches. I only road the off road part of the trail as I turned around when it changed to gravel roads. I rate this trail 5 stars. Traveling cyclist Facebook

Fairfield Loop Trail

Fairfield Loop

September, 2024 by dpate

I rode this trail in late Sept 2024. I started at 9th street and Gear Ave and attempted to ride clockwise but the trail was closed near Chautauqua Park and I got lost on the detour so I rode through town back to where I started and rode counterclockwise. I was going to ride around to the closing on the other side but I got side tracked by the Cedar View Trail which was also great. The Loop is a treasure for the people that live in the area. Much of the in town parts are paved and the rest is smooth crushed rock. I give this trail 5 stars! Traveling cyclist Facebook In

Kewash Nature Trail

Kewash Trail

September, 2024 by dpate

I rode the Kewash in late Sept 2024. It’s paved from Washington up to the bridge at Crooked Creek where it changes to good crushed stone. There were a very few holes that some animals have dug here and there but overall the crushed stone is in solid great condition with no loose gravel. There is a lot of straight open riding with no shade. It’s a very serene ride with no interaction with the death machines. I rate this 5 stars for sure. Traveling cyclist Facebook

Mount Pleasant Recreational Trails

Good trail

September, 2024 by dpate

I rode this trail in Sept 2024 in the mid sixties. It’s a very nice mostly cement trail. It’s great for a couple hours of death machine free riding. I rate it 5 stars.. Traveling cyclist Facebook

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