09-28-2026 Gaston to Muncie Cardinal Greenway Ride

Monday, September 28, 2026

It was a picture perfect day and we explored the Muncie, Indiana trail system. We parked in Gaston, Indiana and rode the Cardinal Greenway to Muncie. The trail is washed out west of Muncie due to recent flooding.

The Cardinal Greenway is touted as Indiana’s longest rail trail. The main greenway runs about 62 miles from Marion through Muncie to Richmond, with a road section from Gaston to Jonesboro that adds roughly another 15 miles, so our Gaston-to-Muncie day was one slice of a much bigger trail system.

The best parts were the long green stretches, the many little bridges around Muncie, and having such an easy path to follow. The memorable wrinkle was the washout west of Muncie, which turned the day into a little bit of trail exploring instead of just a straight out-and-back.

Ride facts

Date: Monday, September 28, 2026

Route: Gaston to Muncie on the Cardinal Greenway, with a washout west of Muncie.

Distance: 34.64 miles.

Time window: 3:23 pm to 8:45 pm

Trail note: Cardinal Greenways describes this as Indiana’s longest rail trail, running from Marion through Muncie to Richmond.

Photo log

We parked at the beginning of this section of the Cardinal Greenway in Gaston, Indiana.

The trail is nice with lots of benches and informational placards.

The trail mixed between these kinds of views and forest canopy. The trees are just starting to turn.

You can see how nice a day it was. The temps were in the mid-70s.

The trail had sections of gravel. We didn't remember that from 2 years ago when we last did this trail.

They built this to stop cars from driving on the trail.

Lots of fences and little details were put into this trail. It is very nice.

There are several parking lots to allow for easy trail access.

They claim that this is Indiana's longest trail, but it has a huge discontinuity between where we parked in Gaston and the northern section of the trail which starts in Gas City. It is several miles of road travel in between.

More and more we see painted rocks along Indiana's bike trails.

There were a lot of forested sections on the trail.

You can see leaves on the ground, but you have to look hard to see the start of the color change.

Lots of trail info along the way. The folks that do the Cardinal Greenway are very organized.

As you get into Muncie the Cardinal Greenway links up with the extensive Muncie trail system that meanders along the river.

You know the bridge is old when it is riveted together :)

This is a picture of the White River, which hit an all-time high only a month ago.

In the distance is the old train station.

Now we ended up getting to the part that got washed out. They are working on fixing it.

It is a very scenic trail

We saw a lot of wildlife.

A heron patiently waiting for dinner to swim by.

There is a lot of art along the way. I really don't know what the purpose of this is.

Typical scenery. The trail followed the river throughout Muncie.

All of that dirt on the right was deposited by the huge flood that occurred a month ago.

That is a better view of the dirt deposited by the flood.

Coming up to another place we had to turn back.

This was the end of the line in one direction due to trail closures.

The trail does go across this bridge, but it was closed this day.

This is a trail intersection.

This section is right in Muncie. It looked like a bunch of really old historic homes that are very near the river.

This is Minnetrista, a popular Art museum in Muncie.

This is the grounds of Minnetrista.

Ball State University is a pretty big University that is right in Muncie.

We couldn't figure out if this little spillway was natural or manmade.

We came across a cool little park.

More random art at the end of the line in the other direction.

We turned back and headed to dinner.

Dinner Time!

After the ride

It ended up being a very Indiana kind of ride: flat, green, friendly, and just eventful enough to make us remember the day when we look back through the photos.