Monon Trail art: Gleaners Food Bank, 16th Street; utility building, Sutherland Avenue; and Urban Art Project, 52nd Street.

The Monon Trail measures 10.5 miles from 10th to 96th Streets, where it connects with the 5-mile Monon Greenway of Carmel.

Popular pathway

No matter the weather, someone is enjoying the Monon Trail during any daylight hour of any day.

This urban greenway is perhaps one of the busiest in the nation. A study by the Eppley Institute logged thousands of visitors, especially during warm weather evenings and weekends when users are nearly shoulder-to-shoulder on some sections.

The Monon links commercial districts, schools, parks, the state fairgrounds and a dozen residential neighborhoods. It has direct connections to the Fall Creek Trail, the Monon Greenway of Carmel and the Central Canal Towpath, which leads to the White River Wapahani Trail to form a trail network that reaches to the west side of the downtown district.

Born of grassroots citizen efforts in the mid-1980s, the Monon Trail came to life because of the creation of Indy Parks Greenways and the appointment of Ray Irvin as administrator in 1989. The first section, from Nora to Broad Ripple, opened in 1996.

Downtown connection

With the completion of the South Monon, cyclists can make a simple jog to Massachusetts Avenue and downtown -- or connect to the White River Trail.

From the south end of the Monon: East on 10th Street to light, then south on Dorman Street (see photo) to St. Clair; west on St. Clair to Mass Ave or the Downtown CanalWalk. Details shown on our new Monon trail map (Acrobat PDF, 2.6mb).

Photo tour: Select a photo icon below to view pictures in a new browser window or download a printer-friendly trail map in PDF format (2.6mb).