The Katy Trail at Rocheport, Missouri

The Katy Trail at Rocheport

The Katy Trail is a 240-mile rail-trail across Missouri, built on the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad bed. Rocheport is one of the easiest places to start a ride on it: the trailhead is in town, the trail is flat, and the tunnel is a short ride away.

Distances from Rocheport

• West to the tunnel, mile marker 178.7under ½ mile
• East to the McBaine trailhead, mile marker 169.5about 9 miles
• West to Boonvilleabout 13.5 miles
• East to Hartsburg, through the bluffs and river bottomsroughly 25 miles

Mile markers climb heading west toward Boonville and drop heading east toward McBaine and Hartsburg. A ride to the McBaine cottonwood and back makes a good half-day. The stretch from Rocheport to McBaine runs between the bluffs and the river, and it is the one people come back for in the fall.

Surface and terrain

The trail is crushed limestone the whole way, not pavement. It is firm and fast when dry and soft for a day or two after heavy rain. Road bikes manage, but tires 32mm and wider ride more comfortably. Through Rocheport the trail is flat to gently rolling.

When to ride

Late April through May and September through October are the best stretches. July and August are hot and humid, so start early. The trail is busiest on weekends from May through October. Midweek mornings are the quietest. The trail is not cleared of snow in winter.

Trail manners

Keep right, call out "on your left" when you pass, yield to horses, and carry out whatever you carried in. Ticks live in the grass along the trail edges. Read our tick guide before a summer walk.

The Katy Trail at Rocheport: the full guide · Trail maps

The Rocheport tunnel and the MKT

The Rocheport tunnel is the only tunnel on the Katy Trail. It runs 243 feet through the limestone bluff just west of town, near mile marker 178.7. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad crews cut it in 1892 and finished it in 1893.

The MKT, known as the Katy, reached Rocheport in 1893, after steamboat traffic on the river had faded. The depot on Depot Street became the center of town business, shipping tobacco, grain and livestock to Kansas City and St. Louis. The line was abandoned in 1986 and the right-of-way was saved for Katy Trail State Park, which now brings far more people to Rocheport than the railroad ever did.

You can still see the crews' tool marks in the tunnel walls. It stays cool inside all year, around 55 degrees, and it is dark enough that a light helps. The blasting destroyed something as well. The bluff held Native American paintings and carvings that William Clark recorded in 1804, and the National Park Service says the tunnel's construction obliterated them.

Through the Bluff: the tunnel and the pictographs it erased · The depot and the railroad

More Rocheport guides

• History: From Lewis and Clark in 1804 and the 1825 plat to the railroad and the historic district.
• Things to do, and the year in Rocheport: What to do in town, and the festivals and markets by season.
• Nature and the night sky: Wetlands, birds, the Big Bur Oak, and tonight's sky over Rocheport.
• Wineries, dining, lodging and shops: Les Bourgeois Vineyards, The Rocheport Winery, and the directory of places to eat, stay and shop.
• Plan your trip: maps and basics: Maps, restrooms, water, bike rental, cell service, accessibility, river levels and the trip planner.

Rocheport, Missouri: the town guide

Questions visitors ask