Best Cities and States for Running Trails/Path Systems? (how much, neighborhood)

[WestsideMac]

I am an avid runner who lives in Indiana.

Recently, one of my former college teammates, who now lives in the St Paul/Minneapolis area, and I had a debate over what cities/states that we knew of as having the best trail systems. Not necessarily the best running scene, but actual connected running trails to each other and number of miles of trails. We both ran in Indianapolis in college together and were commenting the job they are trying to do to improve the running trail system there, but how woeful it was in comparison to where he is now. I had to agree that while community leaders are trying to rectify this now and find funding for these trails, Indianapolis and Indiana in general are very behind many other states and even cities of a similar size. Whenever I go on vacation I always try to stalk the boards here or look on maps of those areas for what their running trail systems are like.

I have obviously looked into articles that rank the best cities, etc. However many of those rankings, just like responses here will/are subjective. Those articles many times also aren't looking at the number of miles of running trails or efficiency (ie connectedness of the trail system), but rather how many people ran some kind of race in that city, the climate/weather of the area, safety on the paths, etc. I'm not interested in that information as much though. I've noticed cities right along water tend to have lots of trails in place already.

I think that begs another question of is it just some cities have had great foresight in developing these trails over long periods of time, the local running scene just being that strong and pushing for these trails, natural features providing use of trails nearby (example: along rivers) for this type of infrastructure, major colleges helping push for more connectivity, or other factors? Otherwise why would somewhere like Minneapolis/St Paul have such a strong system though they get so much more snow than other parts of the country and therefore can't use their trail system as many months of the year as some other major cities?

Living in the Midwest, while we've traveled some, our experiences are more in the Midwest region. From what we've seen, heard, read, explored on maps, explored on our own here was our very limited list. Please let me know of other areas of the country that you feel should would rank highly on such lists or even something we should check out. This is not in any particular order just cities or states that seem to have really good systems in place.

Wisconsin (overall for their many statewide trails like the Military Ridge State Trail & Ice Age National Scenic Trail)
Madison, WI
Eau Claire, WI
Austin, TX
All of Minneapolis and St Paul and suburbs (Woodbury, Eden Prairie, etc)
Ann Arbor, MI
Fort Wayne, IN
Columbia, MO
Denver, CO
Lynchburg, VA

Again these are just from our experiences from what we've seen and heard and what we felt was a lot of running trails for the relative size of the city. I would love to hear from other parts of the country or those that have traveled alot and feel there are cities we should check out or may not have thought about that have really good trail systems.

Thanks!

[Heel82]

Raleigh has over 110 miles of interconnected trails in the Capital Area Greenway system. The longest trail is 30-some miles and goes through my neighborhood in North Raleigh all the way across the county to the town of Clayton. From my understanding, because of the rivers and creeks that surround the city, there was a desire in the 70s to create buffer areas of nature to help control flooding issues. I know a major mall was built in the early 70s in a flood zone and to this day heavy rain causes issues, so I wouldn’t be shocked if that was the actual impetus. Trails were a natural extension of the parks and lakes built to further the goal of keeping growth manageable with the environment.

So for 20 years they built out the trails, and I think the last 20 have been in connecting most of the trails. In a broader context, the Capital trails connect to a state park in Raleigh which has its own trail system (apparently about 20 miles). The Capital trails also connect to the Durham system of trails by way of a 25-mile American Tobacco Trail. Both systems are part of the state’s larger Mountain-to-Seas trail system which is trying to connect trail systems across the state.

[BuffaloHome]

The city of Nashville has 190 miles of trails which includes a series of pedestrian-only bridges, 8,000 acres of parks, ten natural areas, and four nature centers/museums.

[Craziaskowboi]

Three words: Great Allegheny Passage.

[Maintainschaos]

I'm a pretty avid runner, and I've been pleasantly surprised how many locations have excellent running trails (especially with so many communities committing to the rails-to-trails mantra). Every state that I've lived has had great trails and paths (several locations in IL, MA, TX, WI, and MD). My favorite hands down is the lakeshore path in Chicago, especially once the weather gets cooler and the fair-weather runners/bikers taper off.

[Canes2006Champs]

As someone else pointed out already, Raleigh has an excellent greenway system. The trails go back to around the 70's before the city and surrounding areas started to explode in population. They were built in large part to preserve green space from being lost to suburbanization, and over time the older greenways connected with newer greenways in and around not just Raleigh and Wake County but also Durham, thus creating a large network of 100+ miles of walking trails.

I live in Charlotte which has a decent greenway system but it's newer and isn't as extensive as Raleigh due to the rapid growth and green space being lost. It's also IMO not as well maintained as Raleigh.

[216facts]

Cleveland metroparks has 18 reservations with over 23,000 acres. Over 300 miles of trails and a parkway system that encircle the city and border the lakefront. Add to that the 100 mile towpath trail and the 33,000 acre national park between Cleveland and Akron. All supported by taxes that keep the quality up for all generations. Beaches, gorges, forests, hills, waterfalls - all free as it should be. (Except for the taxes of course.)

[WestsideMac]

Thanks for the replies so far, exactly what I was looking for and wondering about! In Indianapolis and surrounding area that is the new main way of trails being added is rail trails since there are grants that help communities not have to cover the whole cost. I know they are starting to try and connect the different paths that currently exist...similar to what you guys mentioned about Raleigh. Indy is just behind the times a little compared to other places and working towards catching up, but its a slow expensive process. Thanks again for all the great posts and if there are other cities or greenways feel free to share!

[snoopygirlmi]

The Metropark system in Detroit has some good trails.

Also, the park system in Rochester/Rochester Hills is very good as well.

You really can't do much better than Belle Isle though.

Personally, I enjoy the trails at Maybury State Park.

I'd give you more detail, except that we are newbies to the running culture in our area, so we have limited experience in this area. I've been really surprised at how much there is for runners in this area b/c if you aren't involved in it, then you really wouldn't realize how much space has been made available for running/biking activities. (My son is a tween who loves running, so we got him involved with a local group.)

Also, because I live out in the country, a lot of people just stick to country roads. It's not like there's a lot of people driving on the roads out here.

[ScoPro]

While the trails in the Austin area are pretty extensive and enjoyable, from late June through September it’s best to use them early in the mornings to avoid the 100f heat of the day.
(Unless you know what you are doing)