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The Little Miami Scenic Trail is a paved rail trail that runs the length of the Little Miami River valley in southwestern Ohio, from Springfield through Yellow Springs, Xenia, Morrow, Loveland, and Milford to Newtown outside Cincinnati. It follows the old Little Miami Railroad grade, so the riding is flat with only a gentle downhill trend toward the Ohio River end. The northern miles cross open farm country around Xenia and Springfield; south of Spring Valley the trail drops into the wooded river corridor of Little Miami State Park and stays close to the water, a federally designated Wild and Scenic River, past Fort Ancient and the lower valley towns. Xenia Station is the hub where four regional trails meet.
Little Miami Scenic Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Little Miami Scenic Trail has about 98 to 142 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, running, birding, biking, and walking, with April, May, and October 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 Little Miami Scenic Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Little Miami Scenic Trail peaks October 21 to November 2, typically around October 27. The trail has 25% deciduous coverage, with the majority being sugar maple, white ash, black walnut, northern red oak, black cherry, white oak, hackberry, American elm, and American sycamore.
The first train from Cincinnati reached Milford on December 14, 1841, over 20 miles of primitive rail. Long before that the Little Miami valley was a travel corridor: the Hopewell culture raised three and a half miles of earthen walls on the bluff at Fort Ancient, and at least three military expeditions of the pioneer era followed the river through the forest. Ohio chartered the Little Miami Railroad on March 11, 1836, to link the Ohio River with the Mad River and Lake Erie line at Springfield. Trains reached Xenia in August 1845 and Springfield in August 1846. The road carried local farm shipments and, in 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln bound for his inauguration. In 1870 the company leased itself in perpetuity to the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis, a Pennsylvania Railroad line, and it stayed in the Pennsylvania family through the 1968 Penn Central merger. The final train arrived in Loveland in 1974. Conrail took over in 1976 and began pulling up rails south of Spring Valley that July. The state bought the corridor and created Little Miami State Park in 1979. The first asphalt went down in late 1983 between Loveland and Morrow, and that 13 mile section was dedicated in May 1984. The trail reached Xenia in 1991, Springfield in 1998, and Newtown in 2006. The Beechmont Bridge Connector tied it to Cincinnati's CROWN trail loop in 2022, the same year the state park section became a National Recreation Trail.
Creekside TrailPrairie Grass TrailOhio to Erie TrailXenia-Jamestown ConnectorSimon Kenton TrailLunken Airport Loop Trail
