Hiking trails near Des Moines, Iowa

124 official trails lie within 25 miles of Des Moines — 427 miles in total, 115 rated easy and 1 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 292 ft; the median trail gains 46 ft.

Open the map on Des Moines

24 trails worth the drive

Trail	Miles	Climb	Difficulty	From town
Neal Smith Trail	18.0	179 ft	Hard	8 mi
Snowmobile Trail	10.7	77 ft	Moderate	18 mi
Great Western Trail	17.2	173 ft	Moderate	15 mi
Hillside	4.2	114 ft	Moderate	4 mi
Chichaqua Valley Trail	19.8	209 ft	Moderate	13 mi
Raccoon River Valley Trail	89.5	292 ft	Moderate	14 mi
Summerset Trail	10.8	186 ft	Moderate	9 mi
Gay Lea Wilson Trail	7.3	165 ft	Moderate	5 mi
Heart of Iowa Nature Trail	6.3	140 ft	Easy	24 mi
Lake	4.4	75 ft	Easy	19 mi
Douglas Avenue Trail	4.3	117 ft	Easy	9 mi
West 1st Street Trail	4.5	91 ft	Easy	11 mi
Clive Greenbelt Trail	6.4	99 ft	Easy	6 mi
Trail	3.5	145 ft	Easy	16 mi
Johnston to Urbandale Trail	2.7	172 ft	Easy	8 mi
Prairie Loop	1.9	78 ft	Easy	19 mi
Jordan Creek Parkway Trail	3.2	155 ft	Easy	10 mi
Northwest 62nd Avenue Trail	2.9	170 ft	Easy	9 mi
Coal Miner's Daughter	2.4	36 ft	Easy	9 mi
Southeast Delaware Avenue Trail	3.8	59 ft	Easy	8 mi
156th Street Trail	2.5	116 ft	Easy	12 mi
Easter Lake Trails	1.3	67 ft	Easy	3 mi
Denman's Woods	6.7	23 ft	Easy	4 mi
Woodland Mounds Trail	1.7	109 ft	Easy	18 mi

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