Root River State Trail

Southeast Minnesota belongs to a region geologists call the Driftless Area, a pocket of the Upper Midwest that the last great ice sheets flowed around rather than over. Without glaciers to grind the land flat, rivers had free rein to carve deep, branching valleys into the old limestone bedrock, leaving the steep bluffs, rock outcrops, and spring-fed streams that define this country.

The Root River is the artery of that landscape. Fed by cold springs, it runs clear enough to hold trout, and it has cut the broad valley that the trail now follows. The limestone underfoot is riddled with caves, sinkholes, and springs, the marks of water working slowly through soluble rock over long stretches of time.

This river valley lies within the homeland of the Dakota, part of the wider Mni Sota Makoce from which the state takes its name. The Dakota lived and hunted through these bluffs and along the Root River long before the towns and the railroad arrived, and this region carries their history through the treaty era and the upheavals of the mid-1800s.

In the decades after the land was ceded, settlers moved in and a railroad was pushed up the valley to carry grain and passengers. The little towns strung along the line, Lanesboro among them, grew around the depots. When the trains stopped running, the abandoned grade was reborn as this trail, so the smooth path riders enjoy today traces the exact route the trains once took.

Lanesboro sits at the heart of the trail, a small town with a dam on the Root River, a restored Main Street of brick storefronts, and a well-regarded professional theater that draws visitors from across the region. It has embraced its role as a cycling and arts hub without losing the feel of a quiet river town, and it makes an easy place to rent a bike, eat, and stay.

The trail links Lanesboro to neighbors like Fountain, Whalan, Peterson, Rushford, and Houston, each a small stop with its own character. A branch known as the Harmony-Preston Valley Trail spurs off toward the south, adding miles and connecting to the Amish farm country around Harmony, where roadside stands and horse-drawn buggies are part of the landscape.

The Root River valley is rich with life. Bald eagles and hawks ride the thermals above the bluffs, wild turkeys and white-tailed deer move through the woods, and the cold, clear water supports trout that draw anglers from across the Midwest. Songbirds fill the riverside brush, and in the wetter bottoms you may spot herons working the shallows.

Spring brings high, fast water and green returning to the valley. Summer is warm and leafy, ideal for a long day on the bike. Fall is the showpiece, when the bluffs light up in maple and oak color and the trail draws its biggest crowds. Winter quiets the valley and turns the trail over to skiers and the occasional snowshoe.

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