Find the top rated cross country skiing trails in Kansas, whether you're looking for an easy short cross country skiing trail or a long cross country skiing trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a cross country skiing trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
This is a wonderful new trail that is scenic and well maintained. It’s also not currently overly populated with users but everyone is respectful on the trail. Hills are the biggest challenge!!! It is not for someone who is looking for a flat ride.
South of 45th street is not paved so can be a challenge on a bike. Could use some trimming as some of the tree limbs were overgrown. Overall it was a fun ride and will ride again next time we are in town.
This trail is part of the system that can take you all the way to Lincoln and beyond if you so choose. If you start on Main Street in Marysville and ride to the Haymarket in Lincoln you just tip past 75 miles, one way. It’s a former rail line so that distance will earn you about 600’ of climbing. Nice and flat, if that’s what you’re after. Beatrice and Cortland provide perfectly spaced out refueling stops and the trail surface is cinder and fine gravel, easy with almost even road tires, 32c and above are perfect. Starting off in Marysville it can get damp and sticky and sometimes you have to move a branch or two out of the way, but the trail is beautifully maintained with superb bridges, tree canopy and occasional wildlife. I have yet to make it to Omaha and back but I get you my review when I do.
Been on ICT since the early 2000s. The park and rec of OP needs to serious repave vast sections of asphalt on the trail where the nearby tree roots have caused significant damage to the asphalt. No reason super rich JOCO can ignore the neglect of the trail.
Cool trail that is flat, quiet and goes a long way. Often not a lot of people.
Great spring ride in Kansas—watch out for those winds across the plain sections of the trail! The coffee shop in Marysville is great for mid ride fuel
Late March ride so weather was still a bit cool but sunny. Surface was fine for just about any bike. Most of the trail was bordered close in with trees (cedar) so not a lot of vistas. Nearly a straight shot all the way. Well preserved railroad bridge just south of Iola. Trail just ends on Humboldt end at the north edge of town. Not a lot in Humboldt but it would be nice if the trail went a half mile farther and dropped you off at Bridge St. Would make for a leisurely ride to grab lunch and return
Our quest to ride in every state in America landed us in Vassar, Kansas, a one-horse town about 30 miles south of Topeka, at a trailhead for the Flint Hills Nature Trail. Thankfully, we’d read that it was near a grain silo, otherwise, we might have missed the small dirt clearing we used as a parking lot.
The seventh longest rail-trail in America, the Flint Hills Trail stretches 117 miles across eastern Kansas on what used to be the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Today, it is a crushed stone path with occasional pieces of shale and deeply rutted soft dirt. Riding was slow and bumpy the first several miles and we had to keep a tight grip on our handlebars. The trail was straight as an arrow and flat as a pancake, although the rolling Flint Hills surrounded us. We’d read that there were turkeys and bobcats in the area, the latter of which we may have seen earlier in the day when what we thought was a large, healthy fox darted across the highway. Actually, the only wildlife we encountered while biking were very loud flying insects that reminded us of the cicadas that plague the mid-Atlantic every 17 years.
The trail was lined with scrubby cedars and other trees that formed a narrow screen between us and the farmland on either side. These provided some shade on what otherwise would have been a scorching ride in the summer sun. About every mile, we passed through a gateway with a post on either side, that looked, from a distance, like approaching figures. In fact, we only passed one other bike and two pedestrians during our two-hour ride. The trail widened and improved after we passed through a gateway onto a very broad two-lane roadway with well-packed dirt and cinder.
Award-winning beers awaited us at a brewery outside of Topeka.
We started at the Berkley Riverfront Park because there is construction at Bally's KC Casino. Very nice trail with great features such as the elevator and wooden bridge. After this point the trail was very difficult to navigate which proceeded on rough broken pavement through a heavy industrial area. There were several construction projects going on (bridges) leaving road debris.
This trail needs signage and the unfamiliar rider should not need to rely upon GPS. A good surface cleaning would also help.
Asked Ottawa Bike Shop owner which direction to go on either trail. He suggested eastbound so thats where we headed. Only rode 5 miles before heading back to Ottawa. Great trail, a little wet but very pleased how our fat tire ebikes performed in these conditions, just perfect. This part of the trail almost all canopied, very nice. Definitely going to come back, go further.
This is not a trail it is a sidewalk connecting neighborhoods and shops.
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