Cyclists will be able to ride nearly 100 miles of uninterrupted trail in eastern Kansas thanks to a new bridge near Ottawa.
The Flint Hills Trail runs from Osawatomie to Council Grove. It offers views of riverside bluffs, woods, rolling farmland and the largest remaining tallgrass prairie region — one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world.
“ There’s a six-mile stretch without any crossroads through the heart of the Flint Hills,” said Jeff Bender, a region supervisor for state parks at the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. “And you’re up pretty high — there’s some incredible great viewpoints and landscape out there.”
Closer to Osawatomie, the trail’s east end offers two miles of riverside cycling along the Marais des Cygnes.
“That is a pretty unique area,” Bender said, “very close to the bank of the river.”
The Flint Hills Trail isn’t new, but active, double train tracks near Ottawa posed an interruption to it that remained unresolved for years.
A new bridge fixes the problem by allowing cyclists to safely cross the BNSF tracks that previously forced them to take a 3.5-mile detour on county roads, including a stretch of busy gravel road.
“There were a lot of safety issues surrounding that,” Bender said, “so we were able to eliminate that.”
Now the 93-mile Flint Hills Trail is one continuous stretch, although a 5-mile section between Vassar and South Lewelling Road in Osage County is undergoing improvements over the summer that will require a temporary detour there.
Federal grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation to the Kansas Department of Transportation have helped pay for the new bridge and other upgrades to the trail in recent years, such as improving drainage, putting down crushed limestone surfacing and adding handrails to bridges.
Next, officials plan to extend the trail another 27 miles westward to Herington. The path already exists — the Flint Hills Trail is a disused rail bed — but will require work.
Once the extension is ready for public use, the Flint Hills Trail will be about 120 miles long.
Already, the trail draws many locals for regular, short outings near home. It also draws travelers on much longer journeys.
“Walking across the country or riding a bicycle across the whole country or across the state,” Bender said, “it’s amazing, the variety of folks that you run into.”
Near Council Grove, the trail runs along Allegawaho Heritage Memorial Park, owned by the Kaw Nation. The area was the last reservation where the Kaw people lived in Kansas before the federal government forced them into Oklahoma in the 1870s. It is the current site of the Sacred Red Rock revered by the tribe for centuries.
Cyclists and others can find updates about trail conditions on the Flint Hills Trail State Park website and the Kanza Rail Trails Conservancy’s Facebook page.
In Ottawa, the Flint Hills Trail connects to the Prairie Spirit Trail. This 51-mile trail between Iola and Ottawa is another example of a repurposed former rail bed – making use of what in the 1860s was the state’s first north-south rail line.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is the environment reporter for the Kansas News Service and host of the environmental podcast Up From Dust. You can follow her on Bluesky or email her at celia (at) kcur (dot) org.
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