Great American Rail-Trail
A coast-to-coast rail-trail crossing the United States — with its Nebraska segment on the Cowboy Trail.
The Great American Rail-Trail is a Rails-to-Trails Conservancy project creating a continuous multi-use trail from Washington, D.C. to Washington State. In Nebraska, the route follows the Cowboy Trail across the northern part of the state, making Nebraska home to some of the most scenic and remote stretches of the entire corridor.
Trail Information
- Total Length: ~3,700 miles (coast to coast)
- Nebraska Segment: ~317 miles via the Cowboy Trail (Norfolk to Chadron)
- Nebraska Counties: Madison, Antelope, Holt, Rock, Brown, Cherry, Keya Paha, Boyd, Sheridan, Dawes
- Uses: Biking, walking, hiking, horseback riding
Nebraska Segment: Cowboy Trail
The Nebraska section of the Great American Rail-Trail uses the Cowboy Trail — one of the longest rail-trails in the United States. See the Cowboy Trail page for complete town-by-town and county-by-county information.
Points of Interest
- Nebraska Sandhills — one of the largest intact grassland ecosystems in the world
- Niobrara River crossings
- Valentine National Wildlife Refuge
- Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge
History
The Great American Rail-Trail was conceived to use existing rail-trail corridors to create a continuous coast-to-coast route. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has been assembling the route since 2019. The Nebraska section — the Cowboy Trail on the Chicago & North Western Railway corridor — is already largely in place and forms one of the signature stretches of the entire national route.
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