This Weekend Try One of Richland’s Awesome Bike Trails [PHOTOS]

One of my favorite things about the Tri-Cities is how you can still encounter little surprises no matter how long you’ve lived here. Every community has hidden treasures. I discovered some of Richland’s treasures riding my bicycle recently. A friend and I started at Leslie Groves Park and rode the trail north.

It’s a beautiful trail that follows the river for several miles. The scenery is some of the best in the Tri-Cities and it’s fun to bird watch and see beavers and muskrats swim the river, or tiny jackrabbits hop across the trail.

When the trail picks up again at WSU Tri-Cities I stumbled upon this person’s yard, directly across the street from campus. It’s almost as if the person were designing their own personal amusement park and left out the rides.

WSU Tri-Cities has some beautiful art work lining the trail near the river. These are bicycles suspended from flag poles so they look like they’re blowing in the wind. There is also a rock garden where tables and chairs have been carved out of the bolders.

Where the trail meets up with the end of George Washington Way there’s a memorial featuring the “sail” from a ColdWar-Era submarine.

According to the informational displays, it was a historic submarine that circumnavigated the globe underwater.

Just past the submarine was a storage area for cranes, and a ramp down to the river that I can only imagined is used for loading cranes onto boats to float on the river. I’d love to see this in action.

Along the trail is this map detailing the route for riding through all three of the Tri-Cities. The Pasco trail goes right past my office, so I’m tempted to try riding home from work one day.

Where do you like to ride your bike? Any great trails you’d recommend? What are some of your favorite “undiscovered” treasures around the Tri-Cities?