Traveling along a rail trail provides a relaxing “stay-cation,” offering new scenery, recreation and the opportunity to unwind without the need to drive or fly to a distant spot. Here are just a few rail trails to visit:
• The Minuteman Bikeway, in Massachusetts, winds along 10 urban miles where the American Revolution began in April 1775; historical markers unravel the tale.
• Withlacoochee State Trail, in central Florida, travels 46 paved miles through wildlife management areas, a state forest and small towns with citrus stands. At Istachatta, you can buy jumbo boiled peanuts at a general store that was once a whistlestop hotel.
• The Katy Trail traverses Missouri on the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas rail line, stringing together river bluffs, Lewis and Clark history, rural landscapes, prairies, wetlands and forests.
• Paul Bunyan State Trail, in Minnesota, is a 110-mile trail, with 57 paved miles. It travels past 21 of the state’s 10,000 lakes and visits pine forests, wetlands and communities.
• The Route of the Hiawatha, at the Montana-Idaho border, traces 15 scenic mountain miles where the old Milwaukee Railroad crossed the Bitterroot Divide. It is noted for its towering trestles, long tunnels and wildlife viewing.
• George S. Mickelson Trail in South Dakota travels 110 miles through the Black Hills, national forest, rangelands and canyons.
• Oil Creek State Park Trail near Titusville, Pennsylvania, travels 9.7 miles alongside picturesque Oil Creek in the bottom of a broadleaf-forested canyon. This historic rail trail travels past the birthplace of the oil industry, Drake Well (now a museum).
• Chief Ladiga Trail, Alabama’s first extended rail trail, offers a family-friendly, 33-mile discovery in Calhoun and Cleburne counties. Named for the Creek Indian leader, it passes through wetlands, woods and farmlands.
• The Betsie Valley Trailway in Michigan offers a 23-mile tour on different surfaces from Frankfort to Thompsonville, passing through Beulah. This pleasant see-the-area trail travels along Betsie River and Lake and Crystal Lake. Birding and autumn colors draw and delight travelers.
• Lake Mineral Wells State Trailway in Texas strings 20 miles through signature Texas landscape: sweeping prairies, longhorn cattle and horse ranches, percolating tributaries and cottonwoods. Along the route, you cross an overpass span decorated with 104 Lone Stars.
• Prairie Spirit Rail Trail is a 51-mile rural celebration of Kansas, where songbirds, turkeys, rabbits and deer are quite at home. Small towns, shade trees, ponds and open countryside engage visitors.
