Hiking trails near Ames, Iowa

77 official trails lie within 25 miles of Ames — 257 miles in total, 71 rated easy and 2 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 243 ft; the median trail gains 52 ft.

Open the map on Ames

24 trails worth the drive

Trail	Miles	Climb	Difficulty	From town
Kate Shelley Trail	11.2	243 ft	Expert	15 mi
Neal Smith Trail	18.0	179 ft	Hard	24 mi
Snowmobile Trail	10.7	77 ft	Moderate	15 mi
Chichaqua Valley Trail	19.8	209 ft	Moderate	24 mi
High Trestle Trail	24.8	219 ft	Moderate	19 mi
Gay Lea Wilson Trail	7.6	136 ft	Moderate	22 mi
Heart of Iowa Nature Trail	6.3	140 ft	Easy	15 mi
Ada Hayden Park Trail	5.5	55 ft	Easy	3 mi
Skunk River Greenbelt Trail	2.6	87 ft	Easy	6 mi
West 1st Street Trail	4.5	91 ft	Easy	20 mi
Trail	3.5	145 ft	Easy	16 mi
Lincoln Way Path	3.3	150 ft	Easy	1 mi
Northwest 62nd Avenue Trail	2.9	170 ft	Easy	25 mi
Prairie Rail Trail	9.9	60 ft	Easy	12 mi
Southeast Delaware Avenue Trail	3.8	59 ft	Easy	24 mi
Peggy's Trail	1.9	83 ft	Easy	2 mi
Multi-Use	3.0	35 ft	Easy	16 mi
Unnamed trail	1.9	130 ft	Easy	22 mi
North Ankeny Boulevard Trail	2.9	67 ft	Easy	22 mi
Northwest 18th Street	3.7	58 ft	Easy	19 mi
Northwest 70th Avenue Trail	2.0	103 ft	Easy	24 mi
Ontario Street Path	2.1	95 ft	Easy	3 mi
Lost Lake	1.1	82 ft	Easy	14 mi
Ashton Pointe Trail	3.1	25 ft	Easy	25 mi

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