Katy Trail at Rocheport

The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, the Katy, ran freight and passengers through this valley for generations, its trains threading the narrow shelf between the river and the bluffs. When the line was abandoned in the 1980s, the corridor could have vanished into private hands. Instead, under a federal program that lets abandoned rail lines become public trails, Missouri converted the roadbed into a state park stretching most of the way across the state.

The result is a nearly level ribbon of hard-packed limestone that passes through small towns, farmland, wetlands, and river bluffs, welcoming cyclists, walkers, and runners of every ability. Rocheport, roughly at the trail's midpoint and set against its most dramatic scenery, quickly became one of its signature destinations, a place where day-trippers and cross-state riders alike stop to rest, eat, and take in the view.

Just east of Rocheport the trail passes through its only tunnel, a passage cut through solid rock so the railroad could push along the base of the bluffs. Riding through the cool, dim tunnel and out into daylight on the river side is one of the trail's small thrills. Beyond it, the path runs for miles directly beneath towering walls of layered limestone, with the wide Missouri River sliding by on the other side.

These bluffs are not just scenery. On the rock faces above the trail are pictographs, ancient paintings left by Native peoples of the region. When the Lewis and Clark expedition passed here in June 1804, they recorded seeing painted images on the cliffs. Weathered by centuries, the surviving art is a reminder that this river gap has been a route of travel and meaning for a very long time before the railroad or the trail.

The Katy Trail is one of the best places in mid-Missouri to see river-country wildlife without leaving a smooth path. Bald eagles nest and hunt along the Missouri and are often seen perched in the tall trees or soaring over the water, especially in winter when they gather along the river. Herons stalk the shallows, and turtles line up on logs in the backwaters.

The bluffs and bottomland forests shelter deer, wild turkey, foxes, and a rich variety of songbirds and migrating waterfowl that follow the great river flyway. Spring and fall bring waves of migrating birds through the corridor, and the mix of open river, wooded slope, and farmland edge makes for constant small discoveries as you ride or walk.

Rocheport itself is a small nineteenth-century river town of brick storefronts, old homes, and shade trees, easy to explore on foot. Once a busy steamboat landing, it settled into a quiet second life as an antiques-and-inns village, and its size is part of its charm. On the bluff just above the trail sits a well-known winery with a deck overlooking the river, a favorite reward at the end of a ride.

The surrounding Missouri River hills are part of the state's historic wine country, a landscape of vineyards planted long ago by German settlers who saw in these slopes an echo of the Rhine. Between the winery, the inns, and the nearby college town of Columbia, Rocheport makes an easy and rewarding base for a slow weekend on the trail.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.