Dornwood Park Trail

Not bad for Topeka. Whoever built these trails put in a lot of work to jam as much trail as possible into the area. The orange trail was the most fun from what I rode, but I also didn't ride the whole park. It has a lot of punchy short uphills with fun small techy downhills. Some of the sections took a little planning to ride well. Portions have really good flow too, which is fun. The building ruins are fun to play around in. I spent a pretty long time coming up with trials challenges to do & I could have spent more time doing that. I live on the opposite corner of town, so I probably won't go very often, but it is a fun park to ride to mix it up a little from the other 2 parks in the city.

Good mix of novice to intermediate trails. Fun ride.

I visit Topeka occasionally because my wife's family lives here and this wasn't here first time I've brought my bike. I live in Delaware so my expectations weren't high for flat Kansas, but this trail was fun and we'll maintained. Whoever built it did a great job of squeezing as much as possible into a small area and tried to use what little hills were there effectively by snaking the trail back and forth. This created lots of short climbs and descents and some fun tight turns.
I wouldn't necessarily rate by his trail as intermediate but there are some fun tricky obstacles that could be a challenging for a beginner. It's mostly flat and the climbs that do exist are short. There are three sections marked with white, yellow and red paint on the trees. There are little arrows nailed to the trees that do offer some guidance but in the white section occasionally seemed to lead me back to where I started.
Enter from the end of 25th street and aim north at the remains of the old building and you'll find the white marked trail on the north east of the creek is a bunch of flowing singletrack that crosses itself a few times and has few obstacles and very little to really challenge. There are however a few very short downhill sections that are pretty fun. Head east at the ruins and cross the bridge at the bottom of the hill to the yellow marked trails which is also very flat but has some fun dips into an old creek bed, and a few fun creek crossings. This section is a bit sandy and has some open field. The red trail to the south end was much more fun. It had some rocks, roots, fast flowy sections, and a few steep rocky climbs(short but fun). Each little climb was followed by a nice rocky descent. I rode this section twice just for fun and the second time through there were some sections you could really rail.
All together I did almost 10 miles in just under an hour but that was doing the red section twice and doubling back on some of the fun stuff. It's not an epic ride by any means but for where it is made for an awesome afternoon ride. The trails conditions where great for February and the trails look well maintained with the exception of lots of trash. It's not in the best area of town and looks as though people may hang out back there sometimes.

Dornwood is an unexpected gem in east Topeka. The trail starts out going through some old abandoned building to a rocky downhill. There is a section of the trail which is like a roller coaster up and down the bank and bed of a creek. What a blast. This trail could be better marked but is a very fun ride.

I orginally had my doubts on this trail, being aware of the part of town it is located in, is not the best area. Also knowing the trail in maintained by the county, I wasn't sure how well it would be kept. But I was proved wrong, this trail makes for a fun and fast ride. Their are some really cool flowing areas where you get to really feel the trail and your bike. I also noticed a good balance in ascending and descending areas allowing you to not be overly exhausted for a few technical areas. The best part of this ride is the quick bank dives that shoot through a dried up river bed. You will find yourself wanting to go back and hit these whoop-di-do's multiple times. Just make sure NO ONE is coming head-on or it could get ugly.

Overall a hidden gem of a trail that not a lot of people know about. This a fun and fast singletrack with a couple technical and tight areas. Good trail for an intermediate (myself) to get a good feel for rising back on the saddle for the bank dives. If you are local give the trail a run some weekday evening and you will not be dissapointed.

I am very new to mountain biking, but I love this trail. From the building at the opening, through the hilly wooded trails, out across the pastures and back and forth through the repeatedly crossed creek bed. Since I am a novice I can't compare it to anything, but Dornwood is definitely my favorite Topeka trail.

This trail has a great change of landscape. You have your prairie and woodland trails. The woodland trails are a little windy as they roll in and out of the rocky and rooted creek crossings. This part is a lot of fun and has some nice technical parts to keep you on your toes. The prairie trails are in just the right spots so you can relax and get your legs back underneath ya before hitting more of the rolling woodlands. There are several different routs you can take and link together so you don't have the same ride or one long one. There are some old foundations near the beginning that really give this trail great caricature. The trail actually passes right through it a couple different ways. WAY COOL ! I would recommend checking this trail out. You will have a blast.

This trail is fairly unused but maintained pretty well. The trail starts out on the east end of the baseball diamonds. The starting point has many different directions to go but the trails almost all cross each other at some point and almost all eventually lead back to the starting point. The trail dips in and out of the creek bed which makes for fun riding. There are also some rocks and roots in some areas that make it a little technical, nothing too serious though. I was kept entertained.