Riverfront Heritage Trail

Nice for walking and great view of the Missouri River and listening to the sounds of the trains, birds and feeling the warm sun against my face!

When I was a whippersnapper around your age, just moving into my first loft, our riverfront trail dead-​ended into some railroad tracks after about 500 feet. If we wanted to get to the actual Riverfront Park, we crossed a half-​mile long bridge facing incoming traffic, with bare feet, uphill both ways, and we liked it!
Since those ancient days, investments in an underpass connecting the trail segments under the railroad tracks has created a continuous trail from the Town of Kansas Bridge all the way to the Isle of Capri Casino. On a side note, it isn’t unusual to smell funny at that casino, so feel free to just run right in and gamble!
It is great to see this trail come alive since the improvements have been made, and since the River Market population has continued to grow. Our challenging topography has made a connection to the river tricky, but this is growing into a great asset for the neighborhood, and bringing life to the park.
Technically, the trail is supposed to be a connection to a network that goes on through the West Bottoms to KCK, as well as a connection through the Westside. I’m a regular runner, cyclist, and city-​stuff guy, and I can’t really make sense of how it is supposed to route. There are a lot of strange connections, but this Riverfront section is top notch. Ultimately, the vision is to connect this trail to the Katy Trail, joining it to a national network.
The trail is usually lively and feels not only safe, but as a great place to commune with your neighbors. It is a far cry from years ago when it could feel sketchy. In the last few years, the worst I’ve encountered was a call to the CID to shoo someone that was camping out in the elevator, and they were there in minutes to take care of it.
This trail is already among the best in the city, and it keeps getting better.

In decent weather, this park is on my heavy rotation for exercise venues. Partly this is because the start of the trail is a half a block (and three flights of stairs) from my house. However, it also helps that this trail kicks ass!
The trail starts at the base of the City of Kansas Bridge (which is technically not a bridge but rather a dock) and connects to Berkley Riverfront Park, ending at the Bond Bridge. I’m not sure of the distance, but if I were to go with how my lungs feel at the end, I’d put it somewhere around 800 miles. While going along this path you’ll go through some woods and pass some random architectural remnants. Additionally there’s a nice little pond and then it follows the river. It’s got enough going on that it shouldn’t leave you too bored.
For the record, this park is secluded and not lit at night, so I wouldn’t suggest running here after dark. That being said, the path is quite heavily used during the day, so everybody should feel completely safe so long as you use common sense. Also, it’d be awesome if there were a few more water fountains.
If you’re the type of person who prefers to run in parks rather than on street sidewalks, I highly recommend checking out Riverfront Heritage Trail!