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Katy Trail: Prairie is the western 73 miles of the Katy Trail, from Clinton through Sedalia to Boonville on the Missouri River. It is the one stretch of the Katy that does not follow the river. From Clinton to Sedalia the crushed limestone runs across old prairie country, now mostly farmland, through Calhoun, Windsor, and Green Ridge, with a trailhead at the Missouri State Fairgrounds and the restored 1896 Katy Depot in Sedalia. East of Sedalia the country turns rolling, with long gentle rises and rock cuts near the Lamine River at Clifton City and Pilot Grove before the drop into Boonville. Beyond Boonville the trail crosses the Missouri and becomes Katy Trail: Bluffs.
Katy Trail: Prairie
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Katy Trail: Prairie has about 100 to 139 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, running, e-biking, birding, biking, and walking, with April, October, and November the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Katy Trail: Prairie!
In half of past years, color along the Katy Trail: Prairie peaks October 22 to November 7, typically around October 29. The trail has 13% deciduous coverage, with the majority being white oak, shagbark hickory, American elm, black walnut, Osage-orange, hackberry, post oak, chinkapin oak, and northern red oak.
An October 1986 Missouri River flood tore out the Katy's track between Sedalia and Machens, and the railroad chose not to rebuild. The corridor was far older than that flood. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, the Katy, ran its first train from Sedalia to Clinton in 1870, living on Texas cattle and farm traffic. In 1874 it bridged the Missouri at Boonville. In the 1890s its subsidiary, the Missouri, Kansas and Eastern, laid a new line down the Missouri River valley to St. Charles and Machens to reach St. Louis. After the washout the Katy asked to abandon almost 200 miles across Missouri. Missouri State Parks took the corridor under the rail banking amendment to the National Trails System Act, and Ted and Pat Jones gave 2.2 million dollars toward the purchase. Construction began in 1987, and the first section opened at Rocheport in 1990. Union Pacific donated the Sedalia to Clinton corridor in 1991. The Great Flood of 1993 damaged 75 of the trail's first 126 miles. The trail reached Sedalia in 1996, Clinton in 1999, and Machens in 2011. It is now 240 miles long, and in 2007 it became the second trail inducted into the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Hall of Fame. This segment holds the oldest Katy track on the trail: the 1870 Clinton to Sedalia line and the 1874 Sedalia to Boonville stretch. Sedalia's 1896 granite depot is now the trail's welcome center.
Rock Island Spur
