Explore the best rated trails in Porterville, CA. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the St. John's River Trail and Goshen Avenue Trail. With more than 8 trails covering 52 miles you’re bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Orange Cove Rails to Trails is a pleasant, albeit short, pathway that runs diagonally through the small city of Orange Cove. The trail passes through James O. Eaton Memorial Park and provides...
The Kern River Parkway Trail spans the east–west length of Bakersfield along the Kern River, a waterway that drains the Sierra Nevada range but is often dry by the time it reaches the inland city....
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Visalia's Santa Fe Trail extends south from the core of the city to its rural agricultural fringes. The northern half of the trail occupies a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad corridor...
The Reedley Rail-Trail is a multiuse trail built along railbanked right-of-way that provides an alternate route to access some of Reedley's busiest arterial streets. The path largely traverses the...
The St. John’s River Trail offers a tranquil atmosphere through a tree-dotted river valley to enjoy. Whether riding your bike or walking the paved trail, you are offered the opportunity to relax and...
The Goshen Avenue Trail follows both W. Goshen Avenue and an active Union Pacific Railroad freight line between Goshen and Visalia, serving as a convenient connection between the two towns. Bordered...
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Tulare's Santa Fe Trail is located in the heart of the Central San Joaquin Valley, one of the most productive agriculture areas in the world. The trail extends east to west across the central portion...
The Porterville Rails to Trails Parkway is a short converted right-of-way of the San Joaquin Valley Railroad through the town of Porterville. The arrow-straight trail runs between Walnut and Henderson...
The Kern River Parkway Trail spans the east–west length of Bakersfield along the Kern River, a waterway that drains the Sierra Nevada range but is often dry by the time it reaches the inland city....
The Reedley Rail-Trail is a multiuse trail built along railbanked right-of-way that provides an alternate route to access some of Reedley's busiest arterial streets. The path largely traverses the...
The St. John’s River Trail offers a tranquil atmosphere through a tree-dotted river valley to enjoy. Whether riding your bike or walking the paved trail, you are offered the opportunity to relax and...
Visalia's Santa Fe Trail extends south from the core of the city to its rural agricultural fringes. The northern half of the trail occupies a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad corridor...
Orange Cove Rails to Trails is a pleasant, albeit short, pathway that runs diagonally through the small city of Orange Cove. The trail passes through James O. Eaton Memorial Park and provides...
Tulare's Santa Fe Trail is located in the heart of the Central San Joaquin Valley, one of the most productive agriculture areas in the world. The trail extends east to west across the central portion...
The Porterville Rails to Trails Parkway is a short converted right-of-way of the San Joaquin Valley Railroad through the town of Porterville. The arrow-straight trail runs between Walnut and Henderson...
The Goshen Avenue Trail follows both W. Goshen Avenue and an active Union Pacific Railroad freight line between Goshen and Visalia, serving as a convenient connection between the two towns. Bordered...
Tulare's Santa Fe Trail is located in the heart of the Central San Joaquin Valley, one of the most productive agriculture areas in the world. The trail extends east to west across the central portion...
The Goshen Avenue Trail follows both W. Goshen Avenue and an active Union Pacific Railroad freight line between Goshen and Visalia, serving as a convenient connection between the two towns. Bordered...
The Reedley Rail-Trail is a multiuse trail built along railbanked right-of-way that provides an alternate route to access some of Reedley's busiest arterial streets. The path largely traverses the...
Orange Cove Rails to Trails is a pleasant, albeit short, pathway that runs diagonally through the small city of Orange Cove. The trail passes through James O. Eaton Memorial Park and provides...
The Kern River Parkway Trail spans the east–west length of Bakersfield along the Kern River, a waterway that drains the Sierra Nevada range but is often dry by the time it reaches the inland city....
The St. John’s River Trail offers a tranquil atmosphere through a tree-dotted river valley to enjoy. Whether riding your bike or walking the paved trail, you are offered the opportunity to relax and...
The Porterville Rails to Trails Parkway is a short converted right-of-way of the San Joaquin Valley Railroad through the town of Porterville. The arrow-straight trail runs between Walnut and Henderson...
Visalia's Santa Fe Trail extends south from the core of the city to its rural agricultural fringes. The northern half of the trail occupies a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad corridor...
My wife and I ride this trail quite often and enjoy the easy access from our part of town to downtown Visalia. The trail is on a north/south axis and is paved and well signed. It stops a couple of blocks short of downtown but the road is wide and an easy 3 block bike ride or walk to the east side of downtown, not far from the transit station.
The trail is in a great location, traveling behind the town, along beautiful farms. There are plenty of old growth trees providing shade on a hot Central Valley day. The only draw back are the numerous street crossings. The ramps down and up the street are covered with the large yellow bumps you see on most walkways. As a skateboarder this makes crossing the streets difficult. Without the bumps this would be a 4 star trail easy.
Location: Visalia, CA
Parking: Gravel lot in industrial area, west end of trail.
Trail Condition: Surface is fine and wide enough but not very appealing. Old and gray asphalt with a few old railroad track crossings at an angle…be careful crossing!
Signage: None.
Comments: The first 3 miles or so of the trail are in the industrial area of Visalia. The trail is between active track and busy Goshen Ave. Guessing the track is only occasional used, although a yard engine and a few cars did move along the track (in the industrial area) while we were on the trail. There are several intersection to cross, push button for crossing signal, at least these are spaced a good distance apart and didn’t feel like we were stopping every couple minutes for a cross road. The trail is mostly unappealing, straight and level. It is a rail-trail for sure. We encountered a single walker on the eastern end. This trail ok based trail condition, not pretty but not a bunch of cracks or roots, etc. Wouldn’t do this one again.
Location: Visalia, CA
Parking: Riverway Sports Park…lots of parking available, nice park.
Trail Condition: Wonderful asphalt trail condition, new. This is a very wide trail, wide enough for a vehicle to easily drive it and some were but not a problem.
Signage: Informational and regulatory signs but no directional signs, which aren’t really needed.
Comments: Started from the western end Riverway Sports Park. This trail is wide and nice new surface, very easy to ride two abreast with plenty of room. A couple of underpasses avoid having to cross any roads, these parts of the trail are concrete and also very wide and nicely done. After the first section of trail of being in the open and construction of a large housing development to the side it then gets into the trees and more shade. All along following beside the dry river bed. While a previous reviewer mentioned a “no-go zone”, there certainly is a part of the trail with many encampments along the river bed, we passed through during the afternoon and certainly felt safe enough. It is an unfortunate condition. If wanting to avoid this part of the trail, start at St. Johns Park off of Ben Maddox Way and travel east. From this park the trail is more scenic with a lot of trees and a few small parks along it. At the eastern end of the trail, the trail makes a small circle and implies start of this trail. We continued east into Cutler Park to the actual end, as mapped on Trail Link. On the trail we encountered walkers and only a couple bikers, this was during the middle of a weekday. Of the two trails we did in Visalia, this is the preferred trail.
Location: Bakersfield, CA
Parking: The Park at River Walk & Kern River Parkway park
Trail Condition: Excellent wide asphalt pathway. Well maintained.
Signage: No directional route signage. We did have to stop at one location and review our map. Otherwise route is mostly obvious. There is plenty of “rules” signage. Would be a nice improvement to provide directional route signage.
Comments: We rode this in two sections. First starting at the “Park at the River” and riding south to the trail end. This portion of the trail enters the open space/ground water banking area outside of town. The wide trail gets away from traffic and city noise. We spotted roadrunners, a coyote, and lots of other birds and animals along the trail. Every so far are some benches and at one time had some sort of emergency phone system but they are in the process of removing. A number of other cyclists were encountered on the trail, most offered a wave or friendly hi. Back in the urban part of the trail a number of walkers were also on the trail. Obviously a popular trail.
Section two started at Kern River Parkway park and traveled north. Trail remained mostly in good condition. Since this section goes through the main part of the city the scenery is as can be expected with housing, traffic, and shelters in the trees along the river bed. Once passed through the urban setting the trail is a little bit more “country” but isn’t nearly as long as the southern end of the trail. Plenty of folks out enjoying a sunny Saturday afternoon on the trail.
Highly recommend the southern portion of the trail.
Started from the Riverway Sports Park which was very nice with much greenery for an October day. We hit the trail and as expected this newly paved trail made its way into the surrounding desert scenery. How wonderful to have such a trail in this town. There are several options to side trails along the way. Now for the bad news... the no go zones. Sprawling homeless encampments all along the St John riverbed, laundry hung out on the trail benches to dry, garbage can rummaging all along the trails. Ride at your own risk
The west end of this trail was recently extended to reach Highway 63. Visitors can park in the Riverway Sports Park and walk to the trail head.
This is a very well maintained bike trail. The western section is very rural for the last 8 or 10 miles - not terribly scenic but there are tons of rabbits, ground squirrels, roadrunners and hawks to entertain you. It is an easy, flat ride. We parked at Yokuts Park and rode west to the end. Next time, we'd like to ride the eastern end of the trail.
I have been doing this trail since I moved to Bakersfield 24 years ago. Mostly flat, and in the summer it is very hot. The city keeps the trail clean. There are emergency call phones about every mile. There is water in the developed areas, but if you go to the west there is no water on the west end 8 mile stretch. If you have the desire, you can bike from about I-5 in the valley, all the way to Lake Ming, about 28 miles one-way.
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