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The trail spans six states: Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, so you have ample options for where to jump on. While much of the focus on this list is given to trails nestled in natural hideaways, there are a number of great trails built into urban areas thanks to slick city planning.

While the beauty of mountain and valley trails comes from their unaltered natural beauty, there is something to be said for the well-manicured and curated urban trails. Central Park is one of the largest and most meticulously constructed of them all. This is also probably the only park on the list where you can catch Shakespeare, opera and street performance.

Just be prepared to dodge tourists, especially on weekends. This trail has about as much diverse beauty as Middle Earth. Running the trail involves crossing log bridges, negotiating former lava fields, running under fallen trees and taking in the beauty of hot springs and blue pools. This is all the more amazing when you consider that the serpentine trail is only twenty-five miles long.

Mountain bikers are also all about the Mckenzie, as it has been dubbed the number one trail for mountain biking. At over two thousand miles, this trail might be a little long for even the most stalwart runner to tackle, but any number of stretches on the trail, from Maine to Georgia, are worth exploring.

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Runners race under cypress trees to get amazing, up-close views of the Golden Gate Bridge from the overlook or even run underneath it. If the full mile loop is too daunting, cut across the lake earlier on one of the many bridges or a shorter loop of your choosing. About us. Contact us. Discover the best of the city, first. We already have this email. Try another? Best running trails in America. Kalalau Trail, Kauai, Hawaii. Lakefront Trail, Chicago, Illinois.

Things to do South Shore. Read more. Buy ticket. Wildwood Trail, Portland, Oregon. Our choice is the mile loop that encompasses Poison Spider Mesa west of town and has a variety of technical features, plus amazing vistas of jagged red rock topography in all directions, as well as the snowcapped La Sal mountains in the distance.

Among the best routes are the hilly mile Maple Lake loop and the nearby 6-mile Swallow Cliff Woods loop, which encircles a series of morainal hills created by retreating glaciers 12, years ago. The Chicago area is known for its network of flat, crushed gravel rail trails including the mile Illinois Prairie Path and mile Des Plaines River Trail , but the rolling single-track trails in Palos are carved out of a secluded natural setting that belies the trails’ close proximity to the bustling city and suburbs.

Double Oak Trail Pelham, Alabama This mile rolling single-track loop in Alabama’s largest state park winds around a large lake and through lush green hardwood valleys, with several punchy climbs that ascend to pine-studded ridges.

Rocky terrain, large roots, and other technical features make for a tough but rewarding run. Mesa Trail Boulder, Colorado The running republic of Boulder is one of the country’s top trail towns, serving up more than miles of routes in close proximity to the city. Perhaps none is more universally appealing than the 7-mile Mesa Trail, a mildly technical singletrack route that connects a network of trails beneath and around the iconic Flatirons mountain facades, and which can lead to rugged runs to the top of 8,foot Green Mountain or 8,foot Bear Peak.

World-class ultrarunners, marathoners, and triathletes use Mesa as a staple of training, but it’s an equally invigorating route for anyone who enjoys an epic run. This mile trail offers a rewarding roller coaster ride as it traverses classic lower Midwestern forests, alternating between shaded woodsy creek bottoms and ridgetops with cheek-chapping winds.

Maah Daah Hey Trail Medora, North Dakota With its colorful rock formations, scenic big sky vistas, and seemingly endless grasslands where wild horses still roam freely , the Maah Daah Hey is a geological timepiece in the rugged North Dakota Badlands. This former Native American trade route the name is a Mandan Indian phrase that means “been around for a long time” connects the north and south units of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and, at 96 miles, is one of the longest single-track trails in the U.

One of the best running sections meanders from the south trailhead in Sully Creek State Park in Medora through the Petrified Forest inside the national park. Tahoe Rim Trail Incline Village, Nevada Completed in , the mile Tahoe Rim Trail passes through two states, three national forests, and three wilderness areas as it circumnavigates Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America.

The trail is broken into eight segments ranging from roughly 12 to 33 miles, with one of the best runs being the It’s the most secluded section of the trail and offers only occasional views of the lake as it veers through wildflower meadows, fragrant conifer stands, and shimmering groves of aspen.

Near its 9,foot high point, the trail merges with the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail and curves around the granite-lined shores of Showers Lake. Arguably the best terrain for runners can be found in the 16,acre Finger Lakes National Forest, nestled between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes.

It has more than 30 miles of interconnecting trails that traverse gorges, ravines, pastures, woodlands, and the site of the revered Finger Lake Fifties trail races every July. The rolling, multiple-loop trails weave around swamps, ponds, hills, and rock formations on beginner and intermediate single-track trails that include almost a dozen creek crossings adjacent to the South Prong of the Alafia River.

The park is rich with red maples, swamp tupelo, and water hickory trees that provide welcome shade on many sections of the trail. The mile route runs the length of Vermont, from the Massachusetts state line to the Canadian border, crossing the state’s highest peaks and densest forests as it follows the main ridge of the Green Mountains. Runner beware: Just about any run on the Long Trail will require steep uphills and abrupt downhills.

A few hearty souls have run the entire trail in under a week Jonathan Basham, a year-old Pennsylvania carpenter, did it in four-and-a-half days in , but most of the better sections for running are in the milder southern portion of the trail, including the first 10 miles from the Massachusetts border to Congdon Shelter near Bennington.

The El Moro Canyon Loop is an 8.

Best Trail Runs in the U.S.: The 6 Most Scenic Routes | Spartan Race.

 
1. Moab Trail Marathon, Utah · 2. Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon, Colorado · 3. Rock n’ Knob Challenge, Pennsylvania · 4. Leave No Trace Half and. The 15 of the Best Trail Races in the U.S. · 1. Jay Peak Trail Running Festival · 2. Emerald Bay Trail Run · 3. Runner’s World Half and Festival · 4. 1. Four Pass Loop in Aspen, Colorado · 2. Cascade Pass Trail in Marblemount, Washington · 3. Porcupine Mountains Wilderness Loop in Ontonagon.

The Most Iconic Trail Races in the United States () – Runner’s Lab.

 
 
You haven’t placed any orders yet. This mile waterfront trail from Castroville in the north to Pacific Grove in the south has coastal views as heart-pounding as your PR pace.