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The Raccoon River Valley Trail is a paved rail trail that starts in the Des Moines river bottoms at Water Works Park, follows Walnut Creek through Clive to Waukee, then runs a long loop through the farm towns of Dallas and Guthrie counties. The south leg heads west through Adel, Redfield, Linden and Panora, then turns north to Yale and Herndon. The north leg comes back east through Jamaica, Dawson, Perry, Minburn and Dallas Center. It is asphalt and concrete the whole way, rail-grade flat, mostly open sky over cropland and prairie remnants, with timber where the trail meets the Middle and North Raccoon rivers. Ride the whole loop in a long day or pick a town-to-town section.
Raccoon River Valley Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Raccoon River Valley Trail has about 75 to 120 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, running, walking, biking, and birding, with May, September, 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 Raccoon River Valley Trail!
There is too little deciduous tree cover along the Raccoon River Valley Trail to measure a peak color window. The trail has 9% deciduous coverage, with the majority being bur oak, black walnut, American elm, northern red oak, eastern cottonwood, hackberry, and American basswood.
The Des Moines, Adel & Western Railroad ran its first seven miles of three-foot narrow gauge track from Waukee to Adel on October 15, 1878. The line pushed northwest across Dallas and Guthrie counties toward Spirit Lake under a string of names, the Des Moines North-Western and then the Des Moines Northern & Western. In 1891 the owners converted it to standard gauge. The Milwaukee Road took control in 1899 and ran farm freight and passenger trains along the Raccoon River valleys for the next half century. Passenger service ended in 1952. The Chicago and North Western bought the line in 1982, and the last freight ran in 1987. That year the Central Iowa Energy Cooperative bought the right of way and agreed with the Dallas and Guthrie county conservation boards to build a trail on it. The first section opened on October 7, 1989. By 1990 the trail ran 34 paved miles from Waukee to Yale. It reached Jefferson in 1997 and Clive in 1999. In 2008 the counties bought a second corridor from Union Pacific, the old Des Moines Valley line through Perry, Minburn and Dallas Center, and the 33-mile North Loop opened on June 1, 2013. That closed the loop that runs today from Waukee out through Adel, Panora and Herndon and home through Perry. A nine-mile connector from Perry to Woodward joined the trail to the High Trestle Trail in 2024. The lighted bridge at Adel burned in May 2025 and reopened in August 2026.
Clive Greenbelt TrailWalnut Creek TrailHigh Trestle Trail to Raccoon River Valley Trail Connector
