Blue River Parkway (a Jackson County, Missouri park)
is located along the Blue River in south Kansas City. Although the
vast majority of park land (and trails) are located in the county park, the city of Kansas
City has a small park (Minor Park) located along the Blue River at Red Bridge Road. Thus,
this park and trails are sometimes referred to as "Minor Park (trails)".
This parkway is a beautiful get-away, quietly nestled in southern Kansas City, Missouri. Within
this parkway, there are several multi-purpose trails that wind along both sides of the Blue
River. These trails are open for hiking, mountain biking, and (in some locations) horse riding.
Please respect these trails by not riding them when they are wet/muddy (if you are leaving marks
in any more than an occasional puddle, it is too wet/muddy to ride so please come back
another time). Due to their weight, horses
can severely damage the trails if they ride when the ground is soft. Likewise, mountain bikes
can cause erosion problems on muddy trails. When the trails are damaged, it falls to the
volunteer trail maintainers to make repairs. We appreciate your help in preserving the trails.
Tips about drying times for the trails:
The most accurate guide is whether you're leaving marks or not. However, here are a few rules
of thumb to consider before even heading out to the trails:
If it is raining (more than a light sprinkle) or has done so in the past 2-3 days, the trails are probably too muddy.
If the temperatures have dipped below freezing in the past 3-4 days, the trails are
probably too muddy if it is above 23 degrees (F) and sunny or 28 degrees (F) and cloudy (or early morning).
If there is solid snow cover on the entire trail and it isn't
melting, the trails are probably not muddy (I'd recommend lowering your tire pressure a bit if cycling and
please be extremely careful).
It will probably take 4-6 days after the snow melts for the trails to dry out (assuming it stays above
freezing the entire time).
Sun, wind, heat, and low humidity will help dry the trails faster. Conversely, the lack of any of these will
make them dry more slowly.
The trails may also dry a bit faster in the spring when all the plants are thirsty.
News:
September 7, 2008: A new sign board has been erected, thanks to Phillip Scherer, Matt
Hendricks, and Matt's dad, who designed, built, and paid for the sign board. The sign board is located
at the southern intersection of the Basement and Bo Ho Ca trails.
May 15, 2008: The new "Oxbow Run" trail is now open! This trail connects the
trails east of Blue River Road to the trails south of Blue Ridge. This re-route takes the trail
away from the river and most of the tall grassy area under power lines that tended to make it so
muddy and hard to keep open. The new trail runs along an old road bed then along a former
oxbow of the Blue River, intersecting with the former trail as it crosses under the power lines.
This new trail crosses Blue River Rd in about the same location as the former trail, but angles
in the opposite direction. We attempted to moderate the grade of the trail on both sides of the
road to address some of the erosion problems on the former trail.
The reason for this re-route was the deterioration of a beaver dam that allowed a trickle of water
to turn into a wet, muddy creek on the west end of the oxbow. That gave us the motivation to look
at other options and we chose a route that should greatly improve the quality of the trail and reduce
the (volunteer) trail maintenance needed on that section of trail--particularly in the summer when the
grassy open areas on the former trail often grew to over 6 feet tall.
Check out the new maps on the Trail Maps page that
show the new "Oxbow Run" trail along with the newly completed "Highline" trail.
January 5, 2008: The northern extension of the "Highline" trail was opened
today. We still have a few things to touch up, but it will be in pretty good shape once things
dry out.
December 2, 2007: The section of trail running from the north end of the soccer fields along
Blue Ridge Rd (the fields northwest of the "S" bend in the road) west to the power line, along the river and under
the power lines, was re-routed. Going from east to west, the new route goes south through the northwest
soccer field, up the incline onto the lane that crosses the bridge to the parking lot. Then it turns
west into the lower parking lot, exits the parking lot across the circle on the west end and goes up
to the edge of the southwest soccer field, ducks back into the woods a few feet later and continues
to meet the existing trail under the power lines.
The primary reason this was done was to bypass the creek crossing that was rapidly getting wider and
deeper. As an added bonus, it eliminated a lot of trail that was in a rut that collected water and
eliminated one of the areas with a lot of tall grass that was very difficult to keep trimmed in the
summer.
If we have time and can figure out how to deal with some especially difficult issues, we're considering
re-routing the trail from the soccer fields east to Blue River Rd to eliminate some other
rutted trail that is difficult to maintain and collects water. The re-route would probably start at the
south end of the "lane" referenced above and run east, along an ancient road bed, up to
Blue River Rd.
The trails in Blue River Parkway are largely maintained by volunteer "Trail
Watchers". The "Trail Watchers" are
maintaining this site for your enjoyment.
