Great Miami River Recreation Trail Island MetroPark to Stewart Street Bridge

The Great Miami River Recreation Trail ( AKA Horace M. Huffman, Jr. Bikeway & River Corridor Bikeway) , runs along both sides of the Great Miami River in downtown Dayton, Ohio. North of Island MetroPark and South of the Stewart Street Bridge the trail is only on the East Bank of the Great Miami River.

This webpage highlights the 4.0 miles from Island MetroPark South to the Stewart Street Bridge on the East Bank of the River and a return to Island MetroPark on the trail on the West bank of the River for a total of 8.0 miles.

Parents Please Note: Part of this trail segment is on the levees on both banks of the Great Miami River. In some parts of the trail is 30' above a drop off on one or both sides of the trail which has no fences. This trail segment may not be appropriate for small children.

How to get there: Island MetroPark is in downtown Dayton You can get there by taking Riverside Drive North from Downtown or take Leo Street West into downtown . Riverside Ohio, a suburb of Dayton near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. You can enter the park off Harshman Road near Valley Street; follow the park road to the last parking lot and ride your bicycle over the bridge, which is closed to cars. Or you can enter from Springfield Street, parking near the trailhead. See also See also Yahoo Maps. ("4" is Island MetroPark and "7" is Triangle Park which is where you get on the North end of this trail.

Click on photo for larger image	The trail starts at Island MetroPark. At left is a picture of the park about a quarter mile North of the parking lot off Helena Street. We are looking East from the red suspension bridge that takes you to Triangle Park. The white building to left is the Diehl Band Shell which is used for Summer concerts in the park.

The trail runs South through the park, passes by the restrooms and water and follows Helena Street for a few yards until you cross the street and continue South next to North Bend Blvd. On our left going South is the Kettering Field Park which are playfields. The photo shows that the road is a divided highway with the Great Miami River to right. In the background you may be able to see the I-75 bridges over the road and river.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	At left we are looking back to Island MetroPark. What we see here is the low dam on the Great Miami River in the foreground. On the other side of the river is the Dayton Canoe Club and in the background is the Helena Street Bridge over the river at Island MetroPark.
Construction Alert
The I-75 reconstruction in downtown Dayton has closed the Great Miami River Recreation Trail on the West bank until Fall 2011. The construction is on the I-75 bridges over the Great Miami River. The East bank has a detour. I took new pictures of this area in late November 2009. The next three photos show the new status.
This first picture is looking North (towards Helena Street) in the background on the West bank of the river and trail. The trail is cut here and will be closed until Fall 2011.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	This second picture is looking South from the same place as the previous picture was taken. As you can see the trail is closed on the West bank of the Great Miami River until the Malfunction Junction construction is over.

Here we are on the East bank of the River. We are looking North towards Island MetroPark. The trail stops here and continues along North Bend Blvd. under the I-75 bridges you can see in the background. The detour continues about .5 mile until you can get back on the trail and continue your ride to Island MetroPark.	Click on photo for larger image
There are detour signs on the East Bank of the trail for your use. In this Yahoo Maps photo you can see the I-75 bridges crossing the Great Miami River. On the East bank of the River get on North Bend Blvd. and ride under I-75 until you get to the other side of the construction area.
Construction Alert

We are looking at the Interstate 75 bridges over North Bend Blvd and the Great Miami River. We are .65 miles from Island MetroPark. "Friend wife" is standing by her bicycle on the trail waiting "patiently" for her husband to finish taking the picture.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	The Great Miami River turns to the West at the beginning of downtown Dayton. To the left (East) the Mad River joins the River at Deeds Point. We are looking at the curve in the river and three of the fountains of RiverScape MetroPark which is a amusement area in downtown Dayton which is in the background of the photo.

Here we are looking West on Deeds Park Drive in Deeds Park. We are looking at the Mad River where it merges with the Great Miami River. The Mad River Recreation Trail connects with the Great Miami River Recreation Trail here. If we were to continue riding East from Deeds Point on Deeds Park Drive and cross Webster Street at the end of the park we would come to the Mad River Recreation Trail (North Bank) trail that after .5 mile ends at City Point Park on Valley Street at the Keowee Street Bridge. This trail stub connects North Dayton to the trail system. The green bridge takes the trail over the Mad River so that we can ride the trail on the East bank of the Great Miami River. You can see three of the fountains in this picture (two to left and one just at the right of the green bridge)	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	RiverScape MetroPark has a set of 5 fountains called the Fountain of Lights that operate every 15 minutes seven days a week. There are warnings on the trails that you are entering a "Spray Zone Ahead". Pay attention and you won't get wet. At left here is what the fountains look like when they are running. They are beautiful and many times you can see rainbows in the water spray as you can see in this picture. During the Summer on some evenings the central fountains are turned on are used as the backdrop for a laser light show. See their website (above) for more details. We are looking North and you can see the I-75 bridges over the river in the background.

We have crossed over the green bridge from Deeds Point Park (above in photo). Then we turned left (East) rode about 100 yards and rode down the ramp you see here to the trail on the East bank of the river going South. The white bridge in the background is the Webster Street Bridge over the Mad River Recreation Trail. We are 1.3 miles South of Island MetroPark. See the MapQuest Map of Dayton for details.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	At right we are passing by the double staircase that flanks RiverScape MetroPark in downtown Dayton. Above us on the levee is the majority of the park. If you are riding the trail you might want to cross the Deeds Point bridge (green) and turn right to visit the park. There is food, water and restrooms there and a lot of interesting history about Dayton.

New Riverscape Pictures . In late July 2010 I took new pictures of all the construction at Fiver Rivers MetroParks Riverscape MetroPark in downtown Dayton. The next photos are of the new RiverScape. .

This first photo of the new RiverScape was taken from just North of Deeds Point on the East bank of the Great Miami River. You can see the new "tent like" building that is the new meeting area and will be used in Winter as a skating rink. The Bike Hub building with lockers, bike lockers and showers is next to it. The next few pictures show you some of the features of the new Riverscape MetroPark.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	Five Rivers MetroParks improved and expanded Riverscape MetroPark in 2010. This fountain at the West end of Riverscape was not improved. It is computer controlled and the jets size and location vary. The kids in the fountain on a hot July day were having lots of fun!

We are walking to the East along the Riverscape MetroPark. The next big thing we see after the fountain is the new Skyline Chili concession stand. This is one of two new places you can get food and drink in the improved Riverscape.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	In this photo we are walking beside the Skyline Chili concession stand and are continuing to the East. There are beautiful walkways and fountains in this area as we walk towards "the tent" which is at the top of the stairs you can see in the background. The Great Miami River is to the left in this photo.

Here we have walked past "the tent" to get to the new Bike Hub at the East end of the new Riverscape. You can rent blades, regular and tandem bikes along with child trailers. You can also rent pedal boats, Hydro bikes and Tandem Hydro bikes so you can ride on the Great Miami River below the levee that Riverscape is built on. The Bike Hub also has outside bike racks (rentable) as well as inside bike racks, showers and lockers for members. This facility is also a Skyline Chili stand.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	In RiverScape proper there are restrooms, water (at the Bike Hub) and two Skyline Chili stores. Here we can see the trail down the levee from Riverscape where you can pick up the pedal boats, Hydro bikes and Tandem Hydro bikes that you rented at the Bike Hub above.

This picture was taken from the East end of Riverscape of the new "tent." which is a indoor meeting place in Summer and a ice skating rink in Winter. Just to the right (out of the picture) is the new Bike Hub. We are looking West in this photo.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	At RiverScape there are ramps up to the park area from both ends of RiverScape. Here you can see the ramp leading up from the South end of the park. The photo was taken from the top of the staircase you see in the photo above that shows the fountains at RiverScape.

We are continuing West on the East bank of the River. We have just passed under the Main Street Bridge over the river and see the Dayton Art Institute building just beyond the 2nd set of I-75 bridges over the Great Miami River. We are 2.0 miles from Island MetroPark	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	The trail goes under several more bridges then turns left to the South. In this photo we can see the Edwin C. Moses Blvd. bridge over the Wolf. Creek which meets the Great Miami River at this point. The Wolf Creek Recreation Trail starts here. We are 2.65 miles South of Island MetroPark and just South of us the yellow colored West 3rd. Street bridge crosses the River.

We cross under several more bridges including the Washington Street Bridge and the double span US-35 bridges and come up from the river via a ramp that we see here. The picture was taken looking back (North) so as to show the ramp and the US-35 bridges behind it. At the top of the ramp we join Miami Blvd. East for about one half mile. This is a shared path so there are cars on this section.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	At the same place I took the above picture I turned South and took this picture of the Stewart Street Bridge at our turn around point at 4.0 miles from Island MetroPark.

The Stewart Street Bridge was replaced and opened to traffic November 30, 2009. The trail on the East side of the bridge is complete along Veteran's Parkway. On the West side of the bridge a 50' sidewalk will have to be constructed to take cyclists from the bridge to the trail going North of the West bank of the River.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	We have turned right from the bridge onto the trail on the East bank of the River. The trail parallels Edwin C. Moses Blvd which you see in the left of the picture at street level for several hundred yards.

At right we are passing by the place where the Wolf Creek empties into the Great Miami River. The bridge above carries Edwin C. Moses Blvd. over the river. The Wolf Creek Recreation Trail starts here. In downtown Dayton it's called the Paul Laurence Dunbar Connector in honor of our local poet who was a friend of the Wright Brothers.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	Where the trail crosses over the Wolf Creek there is a low dam that allows for the river to flow under and it times of flood to flow over the trail. The trail is at the top of this low dam as you can see at left. We are 5.7 miles along the trail.

The river and trail have turned to the right towards downtown and we are at the Grafton Hill neighborhood. This photo was taken looking across the river at downtown Dayton.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	We have gone under the I-75 bridges and the Main Street bridge and we are looking across the river at the RiverScape MetroPark. Notice the fountain that we went by earlier on our ride. We are 6.7 miles on the trail. The trail will turn to the left just beyond this point and after following at river level will go up a ramp to the levee

At right we are coming up the ramp to continue the trail on the levee along Riverside Drive. You can see the low dam and in the background about 1/2 mile ahead we can see the Helena Street bridge that we will cross to get back to Island MetroPark. We are almost back where we started. If we had continued South on the trail at the Stewart Street bridge we would have been heading down the 11 additional miles of trail to Crains Run Nature Park	Click on photo for larger image