Hiking trails near Carbondale, Illinois

66 official trails lie within 25 miles of Carbondale — 156 miles in total, 52 rated easy and 3 hard or expert. Every distance and elevation figure below is computed from the agency centerline and a 10 m elevation model, not crowd-sourced.

The biggest climb nearby gains 568 ft; the median trail gains 198 ft.

Open the map on Carbondale

24 trails worth the drive

Trail	Miles	Climb	Difficulty	From town
Kinkaid Lake Trail	14.3	205 ft	Expert	16 mi
Red Cedar Trail	10.7	352 ft	Expert	9 mi
Godwin	6.8	384 ft	Hard	15 mi
Clear Springs/Illinois Ozark	2.8	447 ft	Moderate	13 mi
River to River Trail	3.8	301 ft	Moderate	9 mi
Panther Den	4.6	214 ft	Moderate	12 mi
Waterfall	3.0	267 ft	Moderate	16 mi
Ranbarger Hollow	3.8	380 ft	Moderate	13 mi
Little Grand Canyon	2.9	384 ft	Moderate	10 mi
White Pine	2.9	371 ft	Moderate	17 mi
Cove Hollow	3.3	135 ft	Moderate	7 mi
Gum Ridge	3.2	224 ft	Moderate	17 mi
Kinkaid Lake North	2.9	260 ft	Moderate	17 mi
Bald Knob	1.6	568 ft	Easy	15 mi
Happy Hollow Trail	4.0	220 ft	Moderate	18 mi
Fountain Bluff	2.2	314 ft	Easy	16 mi
Bald Knob West	1.5	532 ft	Easy	15 mi
Kinkade Lake North	2.3	180 ft	Easy	17 mi
Horse Trail	2.8	169 ft	Easy	9 mi
Lirley Cemetery	1.9	276 ft	Easy	8 mi
Cedar Lake	2.1	212 ft	Easy	8 mi
Little Cache	2.4	276 ft	Easy	24 mi
River To River Trail (New 2025?)	2.2	256 ft	Easy	23 mi
Pine Knob Trail	1.4	365 ft	Easy	23 mi

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