Indiana’s HamCo Hubway: December 2025 Trail of the Month
About the Trail System
Indiana’s Hamilton County offers more than 600 miles of trail. Within the trail system, the HamCo Hubway trail loop provides a connected 28.5-mile route formed from sections of four major trails: the Midland Trace (7 miles), Nickel Plate Trail (8.2 miles), The 106 (5.8 miles) and the Monon Trail (7.5 miles).
Drifting down the gentle current of the White River, the trees a riot of color to either side, I peered over the edge of my kayak into the water. It was crystal clear to the bottom, and I found myself startled to see fish swimming beneath the boat. A heron caught my attention as it waded along the shoreline (no doubt interested in those fish), and a flock of mallards swam by, their emerald-green heads catching the sunlight.
This past September, Hamilton County announced its newly minted trail system, the HamCo Hubway, with a comprehensive website detailing the county’s 600+ miles of trail. A few weeks later, I had set out to explore some of the major spines of the county’s trail system and the recreational opportunities to be had there, including that kayak trip through Noblesville, the county seat.
The river I was paddling down on that bright autumn morning takes a serpentine route across Hamilton County and into neighboring Marion County. Perhaps best known for the Indianapolis 500—the world’s largest single-day sporting event—and its major sports teams like the NFL’s Colts (which were the talk of the town during my visit), Indianapolis and its neighboring communities are reconnecting residents with the once-polluted river, revitalizing parks and growing their trail systems to bring greater awareness to the region’s outdoor assets.
Mantle Moments
The first day of my trip, I met Chris Stice, Hamilton County’s parks and recreation director, at a restaurant just a few blocks from the White River. The greenway along its banks—which I would see from my kayak later that afternoon—was one of the first projects he worked on when he started with the county 30 years ago. He was excited to talk about the new HamCo Hubway, which was a culmination of the county’s trail projects that spanned decades.
“In Central Indiana, we don’t have beaches and we don’t have mountains, so we had to create our own recreational assets,” he explained. Emphasizing the joy that county residents find along the trails here, Stice shared that he wanted to create places along them where people could capture what he called “mantle moments”—the kinds of photos you’d display in your house to remember a special experience.
“At each corner of the trail loop—in Noblesville, Fishers, Carmel and Westfield—we’d like to create an iconic structure that people can visit and take a photo from their trip,” he said of the new project that’s in the works for the trail system.
I had my own “mantle moment” later that evening as I walked the Nickel Plate Trail under a crescent moon. Ducking into a trail tunnel, a dynamic mural of lights spread rainbow hues across the concrete—and I snapped a picture.
Crossroads of America
Indiana was officially dubbed the “Crossroads of America” by the state’s general assembly in 1937 to commemorate its long history as a transportation hub. By the late 1800s, seven railroads coursed through Indianapolis. The HamCo Hubway builds on that legacy, with three of its four major trails constructed on former railbeds: the Monon Trail, the Nickel Plate Trail and the Midland Trace Trail. Combined with The 106, an east-west greenway paralleling its namesake roadway, they form a loop of nearly 30 miles while connecting four of Indianapolis’ northeastern suburbs.
The former railroad boomtown of Fishers is now seeing a fresh economic boost from the transformed railroad corridor with a new section of the Nickel Plate Trail that opened here in 2022. The Hotel Nickel Plate, where I stayed just steps from the trail, played homage to that heritage with its artwork and furnishings, and its lobby gift shop called the Whistle Stop. Opened just last year, it’s one of several new businesses and mixed-use developments that are springing up along the route.
“Everything we do is data driven, and resident surveys showed that trails rated very highly in terms of what people wanted,” said Sarah Buckner, director of community engagement for Hamilton County Tourism.
Adorned with clusters of brightly colored chairs and tables, murals depicting the community, and a plaza with bench swings, the pathway through Fishers was a space intentionally created for connection.
Like the Nickle Plate Trail, which it parallels a few miles away, the Monon Trail is a north-south pillar of the HamCo Hubway. It’s the granddaddy of the region’s trail system, having opened its first section in the late 1990s. Over the decade that followed, its positive role in reshaping the communities it served led to its induction into Rails to Trails Conservancy’s national rail-trail Hall of Fame.
“The Monon is exhibit A, B and C about why this work matters and why we should invest more in it,” enthused Gabby Blauert, Hamilton County Tourism’s communications manager, who lives near the trail in Westfield.
A Champion for Change
One of the places where the Monon’s transformational impact is perhaps most apparent is in Carmel, today a charming, artsy community whose downtown is populated by nearly two dozen lifelike bronze statues of everyday people created by sculptor J. Seward Johnson Jr.—one of the largest such collections in the world. But given the trail’s tumultuous start here, I wondered if that welcoming, quirky feeling that the community now has would have been lost if things had unfolded differently.
When the idea of converting the old railroad corridor began to take shape in the late 1980s, opposition bubbled up in the community. Fearing that it would become a beacon for crime and reduce privacy and home values, some residents protested the project, and public meetings about the trail grew heated.
“When the Monon started, it was railbanked in Indianapolis, but it wasn’t in Carmel,” explained David Littlejohn, Carmel’s transportation systems administrator. “Later, when the City of Carmel decided that it wanted the corridor, city representatives had to go to about 200 property owners to piece it together.”
The sea change in sentiment toward the Monon that followed was due in no small measure to Jim Brainard, who served as Carmel’s mayor for seven terms beginning in 1996 and championed a slate of ideas to revitalize the community, including backing the Monon. During his tenure, Carmel’s population grew from 25,000 to 100,000, and it’s now one of the largest cities in the HamCo Hubway network.
“Back then, when locals said ‘downtown,’ they meant Indianapolis because Carmel didn’t really even have a downtown,” Littlejohn told me as we walked along the Monon. “This used to all be industrial and strip malls. When the Monon was put in, storefronts opened onto it.”
As we passed a trail counter with a real-time display of the numbers, he estimated that the trail would rack up a million uses by the end of the year (a number that would actually be surpassed by the time of this publication).
A Hoosier Hub for Trails
Just days before my arrival, a critical new bridge opened on The 106 connecting Carmel and Fishers over the White River. With input from local Indigenous tribes, the crossing was named the Bur Oak Bridge, for the endemic hardwoods that grow along the river. It was just one of a handful of recent celebratory events for the county’s trail system.
Farther north, the Monon Trail was expanded this year by just over a mile through Sheridan, marching the trail right up to the Boone County border. “The HamCo Hubway ends there,” said Stice. “But we expect the next county over will take the baton.”
The Sheridan extension was funded in large measure by a $2 million Next Level Trails grant, a state program that has been a gamechanger in advancing trail development across the state.
Beyond Hamilton County’s borders, the trail renaissance is continuing with a regional trail system connecting Indianapolis’ Marion County and its eight surrounding “donut” counties (including Hamilton). Called the Greater Indy Trailways, it’s planned for launch in spring 2026.
But, for now, I was happy to savor my steps along the Monon through Carmel’s downtown. Brightly colored ping pong tables, whimsical art and a plaza with an outdoor movie screen popped up along the trail. It’s clear that this is a place meant for people to gather—a stark contrast to what this area once was.
“Trails feel like such institutions, like they’ve always been here,” mused Blauert. “But the opening of the Monon’s Midtown Plaza was just a few years ago, and now that’s where everybody goes. It’s hard to imagine this place without it.”
Related Links
Trail Facts
Name: HamCo Hubway trail loop
Used railroad corridor: Three railways form the basis of today’s HamCo Hubway loop: Norfolk Southern, Central Indiana Railway and the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway.
Trail website: HamCo Hubway
Length: The HamCo Hubway trail loop is 28.5 miles formed from sections of four major trails: the Midland Trace (7 miles), Nickel Plate Trail (8.2 miles), The 106 (5.8 miles) and the Monon Trail (7.5 miles).
County: Hamilton
Start point/end point: The northwestern corner of the loop begins in Westfield near 169th Street and Southpark Drive; from there, the loop moves clockwise through Noblesville, Fishers and Carmel before returning back to Westfield.
Surface type: Asphalt
Grade: Largely built on former railbeds, the trails in the loop have relatively level grades.
Uses: Walking, bicycling, inline skating; wheelchair accessible
Difficulty: With paved surfaces and relatively gentle grades, these trails are suitable for most ages and abilities.
Getting there: The closest commercial airport to the HamCo Hubway trail loop is the Indianapolis International Airport (7800 Col. H. Weir Cook Memorial Dr., Indianapolis), about 35 miles away.
Access and parking: There are numerous parking lots along the HamCo Hubway trail loop; below are a few options in clockwise order, beginning from the loop’s northwest corner in Westfield.
- Westfield: Grand Junction Plaza, 225 S. Union St.
- Westfield: Simon Moon Park, 3044 E. 171st St.
- Fishers: Roy G. Holland Memorial Park, 1 Park Drive
- Fishers: Heritage Park at White River Park, 10595 Eller Road
- Carmel: Hazel Landing Park, 10601 Hazel Dell Pkwy.
- Carmel: Central Park, 1235 Central Park Drive East
To navigate the area with an interactive GIS map, and to see more photos, user reviews and ratings, plus loads of other trip-planning information, visit TrailLink™, RTC’s free trail-finder website.
Rentals: Carmel Bike Share offers 8 stations throughout the city; for locations and rates, visit Carmel’s website. The Noblesville Bike Share Program has a station at the Midland Trace trailhead along the Hazel Dell Parkway; for rates and more information, visit Noblesville’s website.
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