The Pere Marquette Rail-Trail is like a gold standard for the quality of the trail and the upkeep and something people can enjoy all the time.

Winter brings a whole new way to explore trails such as cross-country ski, snowshoe, fat-tire bike or take a walk through the sparkly snow.

Here we spotlight a handful of the exciting new rail-trails that opened in 2023.

Leading from South Haven to Kalamazoo, Michigan’s Kal-Haven Trail State Park ranks as one of the state’s most popular rail-trails.

Michigan is home to an intricate and expansive network of multiuse trails. With 2,478 miles of rail-trails, trail users can easily weave through all parts of the state.

By summer 2022, the Michigan Air Line Trail will complete the final 2.5 miles of its 8-mile total, and enthusiasm among Wixom’s residents and business owners is high. But even more exciting than the trail’s completion is the news that the route will join the larger Great Lake-to-Lake Trails network. Because now, rather than merely attracting Detroiters, Wixom will be able to advertise itself to cross-state roadtrippers.

The key to creating inclusive & equitable trail development is ensuring every stakeholder in a community is a part of the development process

After a long day of being in the house, sitting in front of a computer for seven hours, the only thing I wanted to do was close down my Zoom and go outside and ride my bike.

Among this year’s class of new rail-trails is a pathway that’s key to a 275-mile route across Michigan, a Virginia stunner with a nearly milelong railroad tunnel, a new segment of the multistate East Coast Greenway in Massachusetts, and a Pennsylvania rail-trail that’s part of three vast regional trail systems.