Explore the most popular trails in Fort Bellefontaine County Park with hand-curated trail maps and driving directions as well as detailed reviews and photos from hikers, campers and nature lovers like you.
Great trail-kid friendly. We were the only ones on the trail and enjoyed walking along the creek and river, then exploring the bath houses and grand staircase (make sure to go to the top for a view). Needs a bit of cleanup for trash closer down to the waterline.
Nice easy trail with some interesting ruins and views.
Nice trail!!! Creek views, river views and the old park structures are neat. good little hike. I'd call it easy. I did have a bit of a hard time finding the start of the trail. I walked down the gravel road and looped around past the police dog training site. no trail. so I did it again and found on the far side of the little pond there was a bench and what looked like a trail. there was a gate over it. I started walking down that way and sure enough, it was the trail. no other issues.
Nice solo hike - easy to follow and right along the river. Muddy but manageable. Really neat to see all of the structures. Will be back!
highly recommend
a lot of old ruins and a grand staircase make this pretty unique, it got dark before I finished so I need to go back and get a better look.
really awesome trail. ignore the people talking about how scary it is being that this trail is located at a juvenile detention center. you never see the kids. you never hear them. the trail is slightly overgrown but overall a really good hike. been going here for years.
It’s not a bad park if you don’t mind it being a juvenile detention center. It was very empty except for people you could hear in the woods. It was a very sketchy experience I will not be going back but all and all it was a cool to see the old historical staircase.
the whole wooded section of the trail was overgrown. they need to do maintenance on the trail badly.
Rain had some few small spots of over grown however over all amazing trail, highly recommended! Good views along the trail.
Update as of 6/21: trail is closed a mile in due to flooding. Google maps brought me directly to trail head. The first part of the trail (gravel road) is BEAUTIFUL. I was taken aback at how beautiful. But then things got weird. I was following exactly what the trail above told me to do and it led me right past a k9 (dog) training facility, which honestly was pretty cool I could see the dogs being trained, the trail went right up along the fence - dogs barking like CRAZY. Trail turned into pavement (not in the greatest shape) a little overgrown. It was still fine. But then the trail (mapped above!!) took me THROUGH the juvenile detention center grounds, like right through the middle of it! I could see into buildings and a bus of kids came in as i was walking through. I felt very out of place, but I was clearly on the path the map told me to take. That’s when I saw the continuation of the trail (well marked) was blocked due to flooding and I turned back. Very strange altogether. I may go back when flooding is down just out of sheer curiosity.
This was a surprisingly enjoyable trail. Great variety of scenery and history. I would call the route closer to easy than moderate but that may feel different on a warmer day (we were at 60° & sunny). Will go back.
The fort ruins are very cool to see and read about. It's worth heeding the comments about lack of directional signage and knowing your route before you go. Because this park also houses a juvenile detention center there is an entrance guard that requires you to sign in and out. Not a hassle at all, but a bit surprising for the first time there as I did not expect it. I would come back more for the history than the hike.
Nice trail with old structures from FDR public works administration on the Missouri River at the site of old Fort Bellefontaine. River very high right now due to midwest flooding, one portion of trail flooded with deep water but it was fairly easy and kind of fun to go off trail and work around it.
Nice trail. Surprising things to see. Wish it were better marked.
This is a neat place to hike. It looks like there are quite a few places where you can go down other out and back trails to get a little more distance in.
Fun trail, especially on a warm winter day. Still plenty to see with the river and historic sites.
Cool trail with lots of historic sights
Very pretty trail! Fort ruins were pretty!!
Good birding here, mostly flat and well-kept!
Very pretty...just a little snow on the grow and lots of beautiful leaves
Lovely gravel trail around the youth facility. When passing the school building bear left immediately and go through the stone gates. Climb the 118 steps to get your floors.
Nice little place to go for something more local
I really like the trail, the history, and the grand staircase! Just make sure to follow the map on here because it was really easy to get confused.
The only sign was something like "trail parking." The rest was a guessing game. Somehow we ended up on the main road but if we had extra time, we would have explored more. Signs, however, definitely would have helped. Still plan to go back to try to find the rest of the trail (where the historic site and steps are).
Fairly easy historical walk. Great scenery. Heavy infestations of Copperheads. Really need to watch where you step.
Nice trail.. NOT USER FRIENDLY... SIGN NOT VERY CLEAR... Will definitely do it again when I have more time.... I seen the Forts and Steps.. I DIDN'T do the steps this time BUT NEXT TIME THE STEPS IS A MUST !!!!! #Fun and Fitness with Miss B @stlhappyhourfitness
