Ever since we got our eBikes, we have made it a mission to seek out great biking trails.
But not just any biking trail, we really love trails that are easily accessible – right from where we are staying in our van, bus or boat.
We do still frequently seek out cool trails and trailheads to break up a longer driving day.
But we really love being able to park at our campsite and explore on two wheels what is right around us.
Particularly since much of our RV travels in recent years have been in our van, our only source of transportation once we’re at camp is on foot or by bike. Switching the van back to driving mode is a bit of a hassle and is something we prefer not to do once we are level and settled.
But campgrounds with great biking are often a bit of a challenge to find.
How do we do it?
Today’s post and video shares our secrets, and some of our favorite finds so far.
The Types of Trails We Enjoy
We are particularly keen to find places with great paved or gravel bike trails, or “green” (beginner level) mountain bike trails that are more scenic than technical – and which are enjoyable to ride on our folding bikes without risking damaging our bikes or ourselves.
We really really love Rails-to-Trails routes – they tend to be mostly flat, and are often well separated from car traffic.
We also seek trails that are long enough to really get a good ride on – generally 10-50 miles in length. Ideally with some cool things to explore along the way too – whether access to a nifty downtown area, a swimming hole, a great lunch spot, or (of course!) ice cream!
Short small town bike trails that are often only five miles long (or less!) are not nearly long enough to get a good workout in.
We’re also not as interested in bike routes that are just bike lanes on the side of a busy road, or that are separated from traffic but are really just glorified sidewalks along roadways.
We vastly prefer dedicated trails that are well away from traffic.
We also prefer bike trails that aren’t overly multi-use – whether shared with lots of pedestrians or primarily for equestrian use. While sharing the trails is a great concept, navigating around lots of people on foot can become tedious – and horses often leave trails way too torn up for fun riding.
And when it comes to finding bike trails near a campground or RV Park – we’re looking for trails that easy to get to. No driving, or long rides on open roadways involved!
Finding the Perfect Campground Trail
Yeah, we’re not picky or anything.
And don’t even get us started on our campground preferences (privacy, scenic, great connectivity, etc.)
So it doesn’t come as any surprise that there’s not an easy way to find these gems of locations. At least, not that we’ve found.
Finding campground with great biking is a pretty manual process of combining multiple search methods to find that perfect intersection of ideal trail and great campground.
The tools we use include:
-
Google Maps Bike Mode Google Maps – We turn on the ‘Bike Route’ feature to show us trails in areas we are considering heading to next. Scrolling around, we hunt for long and interesting looking trails – and then we’ll make note of any campgrounds or RV parks that might be nearby.
- Trail Link – A site dedicated to trails, we’ll use this to seek out potential trails – and then look for mentions in reviews of possible campgrounds nearby.
- Campground Review Sites – We love Campendium, but also use RV Park Wizard, to research campgrounds. Once we have some trails identified, we’ll search around to see what campgrounds might be nearby. We’ll keep an eye out for reviews that mention bike trails when doing general campground searches.
Even using all of these tools – sometimes we end up making a leap of faith, trusting that we’ll be able to find a way from a promising campground to a cool trail without needing to ride through heavy traffic or along high-speed roads first.
Some Favorite Campgrounds & Bike Trails
Here are some recent favorite campground with great biking we have discovered – in roughly reverse chronological order.
- Red Top Mountain State Park – Acworth, GA – A top rated campground north of Atlanta that has recently been completely redone. At the base of the campground is the connector trail to the beautiful 4 mile Iron Hill Trail. It is shorter than we’d like, but pretty enough to enjoy looping around twice.
- South Marcum Campground – Benton, IL – This Army Corp of Engineer park is one of three surrounding Rend Lake, with an amazing ~20 mile bike trail connecting them all. South Marcum is at one end of the trail, if we had to do it over again – we’d likely choose the middle campground so we could divide up the trail better.
- Timber Creek Campground – Branch, MI – Small US Forest Service campground available on a first-come-first-served basis, with the North Country National Scenic Trail running right through it. Bikes are allowed on this section of this epic hiking trail.
- Traverse City State Park – Traverse City, MI – State park in this urban city across the road from Lake Michigan, with the TART Trail running right behind it giving access to explore the city and some wonderful local parks.
- Harrison Park Campground – Owens Sound, Ontario – A popular city run park with tight RV spaces, with access to trails through town and along the Georgian Bay.
- High Pines RV Park – Lantz Corner, PA – Private RV Park, with access across the road to a 7 mile in & out trail to Kinzua Bridge State Park, with an incredible skyway to explore.
- Fries New River Trail RV Park – Fries, VA – Beautifully built private RV park, with access to the amazing New River Trail. It’s a trail all along the New River with dozens of miles of trail to explore.
- Alafia State Park – Lithia,FL – Great campsites at this state park, with a connector trail to their mountain biking playground offering easy to difficult trails.
- Crane Brewing – Raytown, MO – A Harvest Hosts location, this brewery in the Kansas City Metro area is a trailhead for the Historic Rock Island Trail – offering great access for a bike ride, followed by a cold beer!
- Dam West Recreation Area – Lake Carlyle, IL – This cute little Army Corp of Engineers park along Lake Carlyle connects in with a network of easy biking trails along the dam, around the lake and into town.
- Hawthorne City Park – Terra Haute, IN – Cute little city owned campground with lots to do onsite, and right along a network of trails running through the city to get you into town and exploring the university area.
- River Trail Crossing – Butler, OH – Cute privately owned RV Park along the water, right along the B&O Bike Trail. Go left about 10 miles, and you’ll find gluten free pizza at one end, go right and you’ll find an ice cream shop.
- Stow Silver Spring Campground – Stow, OH – City park that connects to a huge bike trail network – including to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. You can bike one way into Cleveland and take the tourist train with your bike back.
- St. Johnsville Marina & Campground – St. Johnsville, NY – Right along the Erie Canal, this waterfront RV park and marina has easy access across the bridge to awesome biking along dedicated tow paths in both directions.
- Liberty Harbour Marina & RV Park – Jersey City, NJ – Right across from the Statue of Liberty, this is basically a parking lot with a high price tag (but it’s so worth it!). Amazing bike trails on the Jersey side right from the park, and an easy ferry over to absolutely incredible bike exploration of NYC with dedicated paths.
- Brunswick Family Campground – Brunswick, MD – Right on the C&O Trail, a bike route from Washington DC to Pittsburgh – this is a dedicated tow path with no vehicle traffic. From the campground the historic town of Harpers Ferry is an easy destination just about 10 miles away. The campground itself isn’t the greatest, and is super pricey considering what you get. But the biking is heavenly!
- Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway – Central Florida – A collection of campgrounds with awesome bike access to trails that explore the greenway where the canceled cross-FL barge canal had been planned. Ross Praise, Shagri La and Santos are all state park campgrounds along the trail, with easy access to a range of mountain bike trails and an amazing 16-mile paved dedicated bike trail with the curvy flow of a mountain trail.
- Ft. De Soto Park – St. Petersburg, FL – A lovely county park if you can snag a site with many private feeling water front sites. Also at the end of the biking trail network around the area, with trails within the park to the beach.
- Clearwater RV Resort – Clearwater, FL – A great RV park in an urban setting, with fantastic easy access to the network of bike trails around the Tampa area.
Biking Around Sanford, FL
And then there’s Sanford, FL – which has been our home base since the start of the pandemic.
Besides all the awesome local dining, drinking and entertainment – an amazing bike trail around Lake Monroe keeps us coming back.
If you want to explore around Sanford by bike, here’s some places to stay along the bike trail we love so much:
- Downtown Sanford Marina – Sanford, FL – Walking distance to the historic downtown, this where we’ve been aboard Y-Not. The riverwalk trail passes right by our marina, and is part of the 27 mile loop around the lake. We use this regularly for biking, walking and running. (Note, due to the 2022 hurricanes, there is currently no dockage availability for transients).
- Lake Monroe County Park – DeBary, FL – Just four miles down the waterfront trail from downtown Sanford, this park is technically one county over. It offer sweet little campsites and the bike trail passes right through it.
- Blue Spring State Park – Deland, FL – A little further away, this state park has been our local get-away. It has direct access to a biking trail network that connects in with the same trials we access from Sanford.
So these are some of our favorites – what are yours?
We are always looking to find awesome new trails to explore – so share your favorites with us here!
Hi. You don’t have much on the west coast so here are a few to get you started.
Heyburn State Park on Lake Coeur d’Alene, is in the Idaho panhandle on a bay of the giant beautiful lake- and connects directly to a long 72 mile rail to trail. No hookups and like a NFS park but it was the bike trail that brought us back. Sites are shady, wooded with a few with lake views.
Trail of
https://parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/parks/trail-coeur-d-alenes/
This trail also connects to
https://parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/parks/coeur-d-alene-parkway/
24 miles long
I am at Whitehorse CountyCampground with hookups near Darrington surrounded by snowy peaks in WA and the ridge above has MTN bike trails but I am a pave and gravel rider. Close by is the trailhead to the gorgeous Whitehorse trail. Only trouble is a couple miles of highway travel to reach the trailhead. But my, what a scenic rail to trail.
Fort Stevens State Park in OR is a huge campground with hookups and the largest network of bike paths and backroads I have seen and I have been camping with bikes for more than three decades. Ocean right where the Columbia River enters.
I too camp in a van with an e-bike and prefer not to move once I have set up. Thanks for the great blog.
Those look like fun places to explore – hopefully we will get out that way someday!
Green Lakes State Park and campground near Syracuse NY has an easy 5 minute bike ride to get on the Empire State Trail which is the 750 mile trail from Albany to Buffalo.
I love Pine Creek Trail In PA’s Little Grand Canyon. Petticoat Junction Campground is right on the trail. It is very rural and beautiful as your ride along the bottom of the canyon.
I love this website and thanks for the great ideas.
Kelley’s Island and Put-In-Bay are small islands in Ohio with great state parks and miles of roads on both islands. Put-In-Bay is bikes and golf carts only so the road is yours, and Kelley’s Island is very few cars and most are golf carts, bikes, or walking to get around. We camped right on Lake Erie and the cost was $28/night for an electric hook up. There is a ferry ride over for each at a cost though, but completely worth it to us. There are several businesses/restaurants/wineries on each island to bike to. There are also the Glacial Grooves on Kelleys and a large geode cave on Put-In-Bay. Both have spectacular views of the lake and looking over into Canada as you circle your way around the islands.
If in Ohio near Cinci, you should check out the Little Miami Scenic Trail . there is a campsite called Morgan’s Riverside Campgrounds and Cabins that is right on the trail. Things to do Ft. Ancient State Historic Site. in one direction and the Monkey Bar in the other direction
I live here near Morrow and the bike trail is on the opposite side of the river and you have to ride on a very busy road and cross a very busy bridge with not even a shoulder in order to get to the bike trail from the campground. I wish it were on the opposite side of the river as it would be a great place to camp, but I would never cross that bridge on my bike. So it’s very near a 78 mile long paved old rail trail, but not the safest from the campground. I love this website, and this is exactly what we do with our ebikes and camping 🙂
Check out Spanish Moss Trail close to Hunting Island State Park in Beaufort, SC
Love this! I wrote a similar blog post back in October. There are several campgrounds in my blog post which aren’t listed here. Here’s the link to my blog post. https://chambersontheroad.com/2022/10/24/fhu-camping-with-bike-trails/
For full disclosure, I further developed this idea into an ebook, and my blog post does link to the ebook. The ebook is free for those with Kindle Unlimited.
And as an fyi, I focus only on paved trails and campgrounds with FHU. And I am continually adding to the ebook. Right now there are 150 FHU campgrounds listed. There is a small appendix which lists 45 campgrounds with partial hook ups.
This is also a great blog. Thank you so much for sharing. Have you ever been to Tennessee? We live near the great Smoky Mountain national Park Cades Cove is an 11 mile paved Loop and there’s camping in the park that’s easy accessible and then camping down in Townsend if you have an E bike with enough battery life. There’s also a roadside bike trail in Townsend
Stephanie
Thank you! I am glad you liked the blog post. It so happens we are going to the Smoky Mountains later this month. This will be our first time there, and we are soooo excited! We are staying at Greenbrier but plan to ride Cades Cove – hopefully twice. I didn’t know about the bike path in Townsend; I will have to look for that. Thanks for letting me know!
Thank you for these recommendations! We’ve also stayed at a campsite outside of Gainesville fl that connects to a bike trail there (I believe the trail is about 16 miles long).
You are welcome. I do have Kate’s Fish Camp listed in the book. It has partial hook ups. Do you think this is where you stayed?
Minnesota – Gitchee Gami State Trail for one on Lake Superior’s North Shore, Colorado – State Forest State Park and one we want to try – Buccaneer State Park (full hookups) in Mississippi.
We also love campgrounds that are near great biking trails. Here are some recommendations to add to your list:
Virginia Creeper Trail, VA – stay at Damascus Creekside RV Park two blocks from the trail right in the heart of town. You can walk to almost everything in town, and the bike shuttle to take you to Whitetop Mountain is across the street. The first 17 miles of the trail are mostly downhill – and ice cream is readily accessible! Nearby Abingdon, VA is a fun town to visit too.
Jekyll Island, GA – great trail around the island with driftwood beach, trees with Spanish moss, amazing old mansions owned by Vanderbilts, Pulitzers, etc. There is a state park on Jekyll, but sites are a bit tight. Worth it to do the scenic ride though! If you have time, do the carriage tour and the horseback ride at sunset on the beach. We also have stayed at Coastal Georgia RV Park.
Island Line Rail Trail, VT – epic ride out on a narrow causeway into Lake Champlain. North Beach Campground in Burlington is right on the lake and the trail goes right by it. And maple crèmees available lots of places!!
I live in Minnesota and have not tried any trails yet, but I know many people who have and really enjoy them. Here are some websites:
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/starter_kit/wheels.html
https://www.railstotrails.org/trailblog/2021/april/09/top-10-trails-in-minnesota/
Trail of the Hiawatha– Are you using the term headlights as a body headlamp or a bike lamp or for either/or? We have bike lamps on our bikes. Would we also need body headlamps?
This is a fantastic and beautiful trail. Staying in Wallace, ID which is also next to the Trail of the Cour d’Alene.
We’ve stayed in plenty of parks with wonderful bike trails, but one of our favorites is the Glen Cherry Campground (Saylorville, IA which is close to Ames) with access to the paved Neal Smith Trail which winds 24 miles from Des Moines to Big Creek State Park and connects the campgrounds on the east side of the lake. It is designated as a National Recreation Trail and is used for biking, hiking, jogging, walking and in-line skating. (the trail has it all from woods to sunlit meadows!)
Kerrville River Trail, Kerrville TX. Stay at Kerrville Schreiner City Park. The trail is a bit shorter than you’d prefer at about 6 miles, but it is a pleasant ride along the river, with a side trail connecting to Schreiner University.
The San Antonio River trail runs from downtown to the National Historic Park and past the 4 missions in the park. We stayed at Travelers World, which has an access to the trail.
Thanks for the great suggestions – I’m saving these!
https://webcms.pima.gov/government/the_loop/
Chuck Huckleberry Bike Trails in Tucson, AZ. 59 miles along the Santa Cruz River; connects to Rillito River, Pantano River Park and other parts of Tucson for a total of 137 miles. Handy pocket map of the system available at bike shops and tourist info centers. Rincon Country West RV Park sits adjacent to the S. Santa Cruz River Park Trail Section in SW Tucson. There are other RV parks around Tucson that are near the Bike Trail.
Thanks for the intel on Tucson – sounds like we’re going to need to spend more time there next time we’re at our lot in Benson!
Love this post, we’re always looking for great bike rides.
Idaho:
Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes is awesome and it runs right through Heyburn SP. SP is heavily wooded so good privacy, not so good for solar.
Boise Greenbelt trail in Boise, stay at Riverside RV park.
Trail of the Hiawatha – permits overnight parking in their parking lot, Rails to Trails that starts in Montana, crosses into Idaho and has a bus to bring you back up hill if you don’t want to ride both directions. beware, you change time zones (MDT to PDT) on this ride so you have to keep that in mind to catch the last bus.
WA
Hood Park (COE) park on the outskirts of Pasco, WA, trail leaves from just outside the campground. And it’s a COE park, w/huge sites and many breweries/wineries in the Tri City area.
Colorado – Camp at St. Vrain SP, or Boulder County Fairgrounds. St. Vrain Greenway goes through the Fairgrounds and easy access from the SP.
I’ve heard Boyd Lake SP has a bike trail that runs through it, we’re checking it out next summer.
Arizona
Camp at Catalina SP and ride on the Canada Del Oro bike trail or the new one that goes up Tangerine road.
Stay at Prince of Tucson RV park (very noisy, no privacy, but easy Tucson access) and ride the Santa Cruz River trail from the back gate at the park.
At least a few of the National Parks including Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Zion allow bicyclists on roads that cars aren’t allowed on which makes it great for seeing things at your own pace and not having to be on a bus.
Thanks for all the amazing recommendations – we’re adding them to the list.
Have fun exploring – I forgot to mention that for Trail of the Hiawathas, you need headlights, I think there’s a total of 8 tunnels to go through. Definitely one to do a little homework before hand to make sure you are prepared, but it really is one of those “epic” rides, trestles, tunnels, vistas and wildlife.
Idaho has some amazing bike trails, and we enjoyed our stay at Albert’s Landing in Kingston. We had access to the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes just down the road from the campground, probably less than a half mile, and we made good use of it. We’d stay there again in a heartbeat. I don’t recall for sure, but I think connectivity may be an issue. There were a number of places in Idaho where we had difficulty, and that might have been one of them.
Thanks for the list of favorites! Dam West is actually in our travel plans for later this year, but I didn’t know about the excellent biking opportunities.
We’re hearing a lot of recommendations for Idaho – which means we’ll need to eventually find our way back that way! Thanks for the recommendations. And enjoy Dam West (we also enjoyed the Mexican restaurant that is pretty much in the front parking lot!).
An addition to Stephanie’s star list of campgrounds/parks with bike trails. Please add this one to Tucson, AZ:
Rincon Country West RV Park. Back gate access to Santa Cruz River Path—part of Chuck Huckelberry Loop
https://www.rinconcountry.com
Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL has over 20 miles of scenic bike trails.
You know.. we have stayed there. But before we had bikes. Clearly we need to return! Thanks.
I have been following you guys since you got Y knot . I am so happy to follow your adventure . You make me smile . Thank you .
We stayed in Custer SD and rode the Michelson Trail. A Rails To Trail route. We rode different sections on different days. Very scenic and beautiful route. Access to Deadwood and Chief Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore.
Sounds like a great reason for us to return to that area of the country again!