Explore the best rated trails in Tonawanda, NY, whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Niagara Scenic Parkway Trail and Great Gorge Railway Trail . With more than 26 trails covering 502 miles you're bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
The trail is fairly level with slight curves to offset a straight visual line of sight, which is pleasing to the rider. There are quirky bump out paths that possibly simulate a railroad siding or depot for picking up passengers. There is a plan to connect this trail to the Cheektowaga trail, which will give a boost to those seeking to ride or walk longer distances while connecting other communities for transportation purposes. Hopefully that will happen sooner than later.
Utilized the trail for first time on my snowmobile. I am very grateful for the cooperation between the rails to trails group and local snowmobile clubs who I was told funded and built the nice new bridge decking over the old rail bridges? If I am wrong, then I apologize. Just want to say to my fellow snowmobile riders to please be respectful about others who use the trails to hike and ski etc.
Ranging from smooth dirt and pebble gravel to three inch crushed stone, this rugged rail trail is diverse. You will need to pick your lines carefully and contend with large puddles the width of the trail, if it has rained recently. I rode it on a Priority 600 with 2.2” wide tires. I wouldn’t recommend anything smaller than 38mm wide.
Convenient street crossings with traffic signals. Not too busy, so it was a nice quiet ride across town. Nice and green, lots of benches along the route to stop and rest. Very clean.
About a 45 minute ride on the Erie Canal path ,starting at the Medina lift bridge, through farmland and villages (Middleport, Gasport) herons that are absolutely not afraid of you! Beautiful in the fall!
Rode from the Kiwanis park to Youngstown. Had coffee and went back. Trail is mostly paved with sidewalk in Youngstown. No complaints. Great views along the way.
We started near the north end of the trail, which tends to be the muddiest if wet. Parking was not easy to find, I couldn’t find an address, and instead headed for a church camp near the trail. The trail head sign is not out at the roadway, instead it is at the beginning of the trail, facing so that it is not readily visible from the road. There is a small parking lot across the street, but it is not named for the Pat McGee trail. If you see a sign dedicated to Keith T. Young, you have found the trail and parking. We had a period of heavy rain the night before, and this end of the trail was particularly slippery. The rest of the trail was dryer. There was a community pool that allowed us to use the restrooms and we ate lunch at their pavilion. All in all, a nice trail.
The 1/2 mile in was paved, was beautiful. Next 1/2 mile poor. Next 8-10 miles was not bike worthy, to many large rocks or large gravel. Very rough to ride fast enough to escape in insects form Bergen swamp
We did not see any asphalt. This trail is not for biking or on line skating. It is all grass and there is no parking except on the road.
First time riding with little time invested in pre-study. Parked near Gallagher Beach. I ended up going past nature preserve before realizing that I needed to first go south to cross and go north. In downtown, construction caused some detours which also got me lost at the Erie Basin Marina and a little more into downtown. I needed to refer to map too often, which suggests signage in not adequate and obvious.
Once I got north of downtown, the route became more intuitive and obvious to follow even through a park that was under reconstruction and required a detour. A fair stretch was in a dedicated and protected bike lane along Niagra Street which was simple and comfortable.
I went as far north as Tonawanda and the trail in this northernmost section was in great shape, well designated and quite scenic along the Niagra River.
Rode on a Friday afternoon and although a fair number of people were out enjoying the day, none of the trail was ever to congested to ride at a fair pace.
*PLEASE NOTE that the portion from Bridge Street to the Onondaga Creek, Syracuse NEEDS UPDATING on the Trail map, as connecting trail is now available and this isn't reflected in the map.* Today was our 3rd ride (each out and back) on this trail, completing the section from Port Byron to the Inner Harbor in Syracuse. Today's ride in nice weather was 21 miles round trip to the Camillus Museum from Syracuse. We enjoyed the museum and the newer section that is paved along the west side of Onondaga Lake from the Fair Grounds parking area to the south part of the lake. We did miss a turn heading up the hill to turn off the trail to the parking area so we could cross 690; not sure there was clear signage on that; there was going back down. We were able to go through the portion on the NYS Fairgrounds and noted that this is not open to biking during the colder months (I believe Oct-April 1); it wouldn't be hard to go around, but signage would be helpful on that, too. Signs for this portion of the Empire State Trail were quite good otherwise. Since we haven't had much rain in the past month, trail conditions were excellent on today's portion. Least favorite was the road portion (or "sidewalk ride") on Hiawatha Blvd as it was very busy. Parts of the portion we did today is hillier than most sections; it was not difficult for us "intermediate level" bikers, but parts wouldn't be the best for younger children or somebody who hadn't biked in a while.
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