Explore the best rated trails in South Bend, IN, whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Prairie Duneland Trail and Granger Paths . With more than 51 trails covering 3989 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.
For several decades the first 1.5 miles of the pumpkinvine nature trail heading out of Goshen was indeed crushed limestone. It was decent, but dusty, or iffy when wet. Well, this September the city finally decided to pave it and it’s awesome—wide, smooth asphalt, with limestone shoulders. In the last year, they also finished the section connecting CR 33 to CR 35 so the trail really feels like it’s finally done and among the nicer trails in the state. Be sure to check out Mooey’s, the Amish ice cream shop at mile marker 6. They’re open thru September 28.
I started in Hartford on a gravel bike with 40 tires. The trail is barely visible and there are potholes and deep sand everywhere. It needs to be paved to make it more accessible. Only 3 miles of the trail are paved.
It was hot and muggy, but under the canopy of trees it was wonderful. Some hills, but not too bad. This is one of my top three bike trails.
We began our ride on the far north end, at the Plym Park trailhead in Niles. Parking is more than adequate and very safe. However, as with the entire trail, there are no modern bathrooms. Simply a porta-potty every now and then. Plym Park seems like such a nice place and we were pretty surprised at the lack of facilities there.
The first 2.5 miles is probably not our favorite that we've ever done, and that's trying very hard to be diplomatic. The signage was non-existent, the crossings were poorly marked (especially the first major crossings at Wayne St and M-139. No buttons to push for crossing at a very dangerous and partially obstructed intersection. At worst, they need a push-button flashing yellow, probably a Hawk light. Either way, we made it past there to the riverfront part of the trail. Again, lots of beauty here, but it was hard to take your eyes off of the trail in front of you because the roots that have undergrown this part of the trail have caused massive bumps and ruts. This continued for the entirety of the Niles (city) part of the trail until we reached Fort Street, a little over 2 miles in to the journey. We had decided to ride the hybrids today and not the road bikes. We were very glad we had made that decision.
Once we crossed over Fort Street, we rode along a fairly new section of the trail alongside 3rd Street. This was MUCH better pavement conditions. However, about a half mile down, you are required to cross this very busy street with (again) no lights, no flashers, etc., just on your own with some white paint on the road. Crossing over, you ride a circular trail cut through a nature park, which is nice because it takes you away from this very busy street. (It was our bad luck that a very large tree had come down overnight and forced us to "portage" over this tree! Never had that experience before.) Once back to 3rd St., you hit US12, which is a major road. Fortunately, there are very good pedestrian crossing signals here, and we didn't have any issues in either direction. Crossing this, you are dead-straight North/South for the next 3.5 miles until you are almost on Notre Dame's campus. This is a very nice ride with the exception that there are probably seven or eight cross streets so a lot of stops. Not dangerous crossings, but ones that prevent you from going a nice distance to stretch your legs out.
Once you reach Douglas Road and Business US 31, you are on the NW tip of the campus. Lots of great places to ride there which are not part of this trail, so I won't talk about them here.
Overall, it's a decent trail and the City of Niles is actively working on it, patching many of the bad spots with new pavement, as well as clearing brush and trees that are encroaching, so props to them for their efforts. Unfortunately, there are just SO many place that need fixing, they are fighting a losing battle against those tree roots. We're glad we got to finally experience this trail. Unfortunately, its lack of facilities and poor pavement quality make it a three-star at best, and that's only to the south of Niles. North of Fort St, no more than two.
Have always loved this trail. Peaceful ride. Only thing is we just went down it on 7/6/2024. It needs a lot of repairs soon or it isn't going to last long. Sad because we love riding this trail.
Rode this trail last year. Started in Goshen and headed toward Middlebury. There is a large section of trail that is exposed to the wind. Chose a calm day, it’s not pleasant riding into a 20 mph wind!¿
Very well kept and comfortable trail. Effective July '24 extends an additional mile or so beyond what's indicated here, along the Sylvan Lake dam on the west end.
This is such a nice trail. Part of it is nice and secluded while other parts are next to the road. It's definitely worth riding.
We love riding both sections of the Nickle Plate trail. However the section in the middle though the town of Peru isn't the most enjoyable. It's not really well marked.
This trail is very poorly marked through the downtown area. No directional signs or designated bike lanes. I was completely confused about where I should be biking- street or sidewalk? Connecting to the pumpkinvine trail took a lot of guess work and stopping to check my google map.
In April a limestone parking area was added to the east side of Starke County Road 700 East adjacent to the current southeast trailhead. On May 25 a 5K Run and 3K Walk was held beginning a few feet northwest of this location. The starting point for the event is painted on the pavement with the turnarounds for the 5K Run and 3 Walk also painted--for persons training for other competitions and a possible repeat event here in 2025.
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