I increasingly see and enjoy trail art as I've biked 276 trails across the country. The art mostly involves free-standing sculpture or paintings on underpass walls and flood water walls, so I recently began photographing and collecting the art.
These first three were along Grand Junction, Colorado's Riverfront Trail..
The "Blue Heron" section of the trail had these herons in flight...
The Pueblo, Colorado Riverwalk Trail had these five pieces painted on its sloping flood walls...
Steamboat Springs' Yampa River Trail had this statue...
In Venice, Floria I found this mural paying homage to its circus history...
...as another honoring its past residents...
DeLand, Florida, similarly honored its past with this mural...
This mural adorned the wall of a building in Marseilles, Illinois, along the I&M Canal Trail.
Many towns decorate their bike trail with art featuring the bicycle, as demonstrated on the famed Elroy-Sparta (Wisconsin) Trail (though I've never seen one of these bikes on the trail)...
The Little Miami Trail (Ohio) had interesting bike racks...
Miami, Florida's New River Trail had this sculpture to greet you...
Columbus, Ohio's Alum Trail is one of my all time favorite bike trails. The scenery is drop-dead gorgeous as you cross the Alum Creek numerous times on a variety of amazing bridge structures they've built to get you across. Here's just one of them...
As a retired teacher, I appreciated two historical markers along the Alum Trail. The first was on the university's campus, reminding us that the Underground Railroad was neither (literally) underground nor a railway. The old Spiritual "Wade in the Water" stated "God's gonna' trouble the water" so the bounty hunters' dogs couldn't track them.
The second bit of history was farther south on the trail in Wolfe Park, where homage was paid to a gentleman I'd never heard of, and perhaps you haven't either -- one of America's most famous cyclists, Marshall Taylor, who in 1899 set seven world records, including riding a mile in 1 minute and 19 seconds, nearly 46 miles per hour!
Florida's Lake Mineola Trail has a playground for the kids with these wheeled attractions...
...and Knoxville, Tennessee's Greenway Trail has this sculpture...
The Croom Mountain Bike Trails near Brooksville, Florida were designed, constructed, and maintained by the stalwart members of SWAMP (the SouthWest Association of Mountain Bike Peddlers) who obviously have a sense of humor and a bit of whimsy as demonstrated in this piece of "sculpture" attached to a tree on the yellow loop.
Though not actually on bike paths, I did come across these two statues while biking in national parks. The first was this Florida Panther in Everglades NP...
...and this one was in Grand Teton National Park...
Chicago's fabulous Lakefront Trail runs 18.5 miles from Hollywood Beach on the north to 71st Street on the south, passing 31 beaches, a golf course, numerous harbors, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago's famous Navy Pier and Downtown and Buckingham Fountain, the Museum Campus, Soldier Field, McCormick Place, and much more. The trail is blacktop although several sections parallel gravel equestrian paths. At Navy Pier, this "Crack the Whip" sculpture garners much attention.
Just a bit west of the trail (across the road) is the famous "Cloud Gate" sculpture, better known as "The Bean," is one of the world’s largest permanent outdoor art installations.
The Lake County, Illinois, Forest Preserve District's Millennium Trail runs 33 miles of the planned 41 miles. The section through Lakewood Forest Preserve features this full size mastodon in honor of the critters that roamed this area 10,000 years ago.
A spur trail called Fort Hill Trail takes you to this statue which honors the Ray Lake Farm Preserve.
The Fox River Trail in suburban Chicago...
On Georgia's Jekyll Island I came upon this location. Though a product of Mother Nature and not man, I felt it a magnificent creation worthy of photos...
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