Iron Belle Trail
Separate hiking and bicycling routes connect Belle Isle with Ironwood across more than two thousand miles of parks, streets, rail-trails, forests, and Great Lakes communities.
Artwork inspired by Charles McGee
The Iron Belle is a statewide network rather than a uniformly signed path. Its hiking and bicycle alignments diverge for long distances, cross land managed by many agencies, and include urban streets, remote forest, completed trail, and evolving connectors.
Choose the hiking or bicycle route before downloading current maps, then plan named segments around surface, services, legal parking, and seasonal closures. A state-scale map marker is orientation only; it is not a promise that every nearby road is trail.
- Routes
- Separate hiking and cycling lines
- Endpoints
- Belle Isle to Ironwood
- Total reach
- More than 2,000 miles
Quick guide
- Begin with
- Choose a route from Belle Isle trailhead
- Look closely at
- North Country Trail sections
Plan the Iron Belle as many trails, not one continuous outing
- Choose hiking or biking
- The two routes overlap only partly and use different surfaces
- Name the segment
- Trailhead, manager, distance, and return transport must be explicit
- Expect discontinuities
- Road connectors and unfinished links remain part of the statewide system
- Check local rules
- Permits, hours, camping, and winter use change by property
Good to know
The two routes are not interchangeable: the hiking route is much longer and uses extensive natural tread, while the bicycle route favors paved and crushed-stone corridors.
Notice these
- Belle Isle trailhead
- North Country Trail sections
- Ironwood endpoint