Trail HEAD

Paid a visit to the East trail in Ottawa and though it is the least traveled trail in town because most people prefer the west side with the old antique railroad bridge now - renovated into a park.

This Eastside trailhead is simple in design, yet it deals a beautiful Woodland tree tunnel of natural beauty. Unlike on the other side, Where a portion of the trail is out in the open to where the hot sun can bake you a cake. This area provides mostly shade.

You can take a nice hike, jog, ride your bike along the trail and be kept under constant shade by the trees with only a few areas of openness. Very peaceful, calm, quiet, and very well maintained.

It takes about 20 minutes to walk from the parking lot to the 15th St. bridge. There are no bathrooms, no water fountains or any of those. I’m pretty sure you can walk your dog because there’s no signs rejecting that idea.

All in all, the Eastside trail is just a nice easy-going 15-20 minute walk through a shaded woodland area on the east side of town.

The nice thing about the Flint Hills Trail in Ottawa, there’s different parts and each part has its own personality.

Parked at Ottawa and walked towards Osawatamie. It's flat (very flat) and I'd say 50% shaded / exposed. Didn't see many bikers, but seems very much like the Katy trail on the missouri side (a rails to trail conversion). We needed to get some serious miles in and this worked great but don't expect elevation, water or amenities.

This is really kind of a sketchy area