One of the things we like to do as a family is take bike rides. Today, we decided to check out the Lehigh Greenway Rail Trail, located in Palm Coast in Flagler County. What a beautiful trail!

The trail has a few access points, but not all of them having parking. There is an unpaved parking lot and access to the trail at the corner of Belle Terre Parkway and Royal Palms Parkway in Palm Coast. At that point, you have a choice of riding east or west on the trail. Going west round trip, you will first cross over Belle Terre Parkway to access that portion of the trail. Going west round trip it is around 6 miles. It's mostly shaded and a beautiful ride. Heading east is a around 7 miles round trip. Going east there is around a 1-mile stretch without shade, so you are in the sun the whole time. This direction also has two places where you need to cross a major road. The east direction ends at Colbert. There is a beautiful wooded boardwalk for portion of this trail, which takes you over a swamp (we spotted an alligator sunning). 

Both directions of the trail, east and west, are beautiful. If you are not going to do it all and you have kids with you, then I recommend going east, as you will only cross one major road and will be shaded for most of the ride. If your kids are able to do the whole trail in both directions it's a great way to spend 2.5 hours, which is what it took us with taking a short snack break. Just be cautious around crossing the major roads, of course.

We did the whole thing, which my GPS showed was a total of 13.5 miles. We had stopped halfway between to rest and have a snack of trail mix, a tangerine, and grab a drink. 

We saw lots of birds, one alligator, butterflies, and more. It was a beautiful trail! There were people out there using it (biking, running, walking, etc.), but it wasn't too busy. There are nice benches along the way, providing plenty of opportunities to take a shaded break. We loved this trail, which takes you through the woods, along a river, over bridges, and over a swamp. Being paved, this trail works well for biking, strollers, wheelchairs, etc. Two thumbs up for this beautiful trail!

Note that there are no restrooms anywhere along the trail. There was one port-a-potty, but it was tipped on its side, rendering it useless. The trail was very well maintained and clean. There are also dog poop bag stations and trash cans spread periodically, as well as a bike fixing station in case you need to adjust a seat, fix a chain etc. 

- Jacqueline Bodnar

Here are pictures from our family bike ride today on the Lehigh Greenway Rail Trail in Palm Coast: