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The French Broad River Greenway links three of Asheville's parks: Hominy Creek River Park, Carrier Park, and French Broad River Park. The trail follows the river, coursing through a wooded strip of land, through the parks and among some residential and light commercial sites.
Starting at the southern end in Hominy Creek River Park, you'll enjoy river access and picnic areas. From there, the trail heads north and then east along the river through Carrier Park, where you'll find many athletic facilities, a playground, picnic pavilion, river overlooks, boat landing and a wetland interpretive and education area.
The continues along Amboy Road to French Broad River Park, which offers lots of open green space, a wildflower garden, a dog park, picnic areas, an observation deck and a playground. You'll continue north from the park to trail's end at Craven Street, just south of I-240.
Parking is available at Hominy Creek Park (220 Hominy Creek Road), Carrier Park (220 Amboy Road) and French Broad River Park (508 Riverview Dr.).
I use the bike trails in West Asheville several times a week, as they are relatively flat and run along the river. But the connections between stretches of trail can be dangerous. For example, if I want to ride from the new RAD trail toward Carrier Park, I must do so along a stretch of Amboy with no trail, nor even a road shoulder. (The only other option is to go under the bridge through French Broad Park, which is often muddy.) And if I want to continue in the RAD to Craven Street parking, I must cross the road where the trail suddenly is one way instead of side-by-side two way. Except for the stretch through RAD, a cyclist must contend with dog walkers and toddlers on tricycles. Bottom line: wear a helmet!
Great easy ride through parks and urban settings. Not challenging and nicely paved
I'm submitting this as a review because I can't find another place to send it. After the recent rains, someone used sand to repair the dirt path that connects the French Broad River Greenway to the French Broad River Park (it goes underneath the Amboy Road overpass). Please don't use sand! It makes it difficult and dangerous to ride a bike through the area. Please use dirt instead.
North of French Broad River Park there is NO trail, or at least it does not connect to the park. Immediately south of the park (under the bridge) the trail is extremely washed out for some distance, then it's in great shape for considerable distance (no accurate estimate of how far). We WERE able to get in 7-8 miles round trip before we hit mud (just south of the campground). Trail may continue beyond that point, we did not try it. Watch out for deep sand periodically and ride accordingly.
I love this trail, I ride it almost weekly, but I also live less than a mile from it and would not travel long distances to experience it. Goes through a crowded park, there is a velodrome & river access tho and that's cool.
The trail extends further north with dirt road, but very interesting trail.
I ride from the dog park in Carrier down to Hominy creek park. A pleasant and quiet ride if you go well before 9am after which it does become busier.
I notice that just recently the grassy path which runs alongside the dog track and on into town has become a private road, restricted to commercial vehicular traffic. I do hope that whenever and whatever work is finished the road will be opened to expand the bike and pedestrian trail.
This is a nice, scenic trail that has a lot of potential but right now, it's too short and crowded. I rode my bike and spent the majority of my time dodging people, dogs and rollerbladers. To be fair, this is just a small part of what will hopefully be a much more extensive series of trails in the future. Asheville has big plans for a bicycle friendly trail network that will be fantastic if it becomes a reality. Keep your fingers crossed.
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