If you've ridden the Cannon Valley Trail out of Riverside Park more than a couple times this year, you've probably already hit a fence somewhere east of town and turned around without really knowing why. Here's the short version: two separate stretches of trail are closed right now, and they are not on the same clock. One is a repair job that a recent update suggested might wrap up this fall. The other is a bridge and surface replacement that stays closed through June 2027. Treating them as the same kind of inconvenience, the kind that clears up "eventually," means planning your fall rides around the wrong assumption.
That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should, because the instinct for most of us who live here is to wait it out. Cannon Falls has watched crews work on this trail for years. But this year, one of those closures spans a full trail season plus the start of another, and if you're mapping out fall bike nights, dog walks, or a last long ride before the weather turns, the smart move is to stop aiming east and start planning a different loop.
The Fence You'll Hit Heading East This Year
Starting from the Cannon Falls trailhead at Riverside Park and heading toward Red Wing, you'll run into the first closure around mile 13.5, which extends to mile 17.5. That stretch covers slope failure repairs near mile 14 and mile 16, where the trail bed itself needed rebuilding, not just resurfacing. As of a July update on the project, the mile 16 section was close to finished but still needed asphalt, while mile 14 still needed a barrier fence installed before it could reopen. The same update noted the completion timeline had already slipped and might not land until fall.
Keep riding, or in this case, keep trying to ride, and you'd hit a second closure starting at mile 15.5, the Cannon Bottom Road access point, running out to mile 19.7 at Old West Main in Red Wing. This one is a bigger project: replacing Bridge R0497, a wooden structure over a century old, with a new steel truss bridge, plus resurfacing 4.2 miles of the trail's narrowest and roughest pavement from an 8-foot width to 10 feet. Goodhue County put this reconstruction project out to public bid earlier this year, with bids due in mid-June. The work itself is expected to keep that section closed through June 2027.
So the honest answer to "when does the trail open all the way to Red Wing again" is: not this year, and not next spring either. Cannon Bottom Road Access stays open as a parking and turnaround point throughout that project, which is the one piece of good news if you still want to get a look at that stretch of river.
One Closure Clears By Snowfall. The Other Doesn't Until Next Summer.
This is the part that changes how you should actually plan. The mile 14 and mile 16 slope repairs are a single riding season's disruption, a real one, but one that's plausibly behind us by the time snow flies. The bridge project past Cannon Bottom Road is a different animal entirely. It's going to outlast this fall, this winter, and next spring, only reopening once next summer is already underway.
If you've been telling yourself you'll just wait a few weeks and the trail will be back to normal, that logic holds for the closer-in repair work. It does not hold for the Red Wing end. Anyone building a regular riding or walking routine around a full Cannon Falls-to-Red Wing trip should plan on that not being an option again until the middle of next year at the earliest.
The Loop That Actually Makes Sense Through October
Given that, the better move this fall is to stop treating an interrupted ride to Red Wing as the goal and start treating the western half of the trail, the part that's fully open, as the actual destination. From the Riverside Park trailhead, that gives you a clean out-and-back toward Welch with no detours to plan around, plus an easy return into downtown Cannon Falls where the ride can end at an actual stop instead of a construction fence.
A route that's worked well for people I talk to who ride regularly:
- Start at the Cannon Falls trailhead in Riverside Park, where the wheel pass self-pay station and trail attendant are located.
- Ride east toward Welch, where the trail runs closest to the river and stays shaded most of the way.
- Turn around before Cannon Bottom Road if you're avoiding construction zones entirely, or continue to Cannon Bottom Road Access if you want to see how far the bridge work has progressed.
- Loop back into downtown Cannon Falls along Mill Street, where Cannon River Winery, Tilion Brewing Company, and CannonBelles Coffee & Ice Cream all sit within a few blocks of each other.
- If you're riding in the evening, Sweet Kneads Bakery and Dudley's Pizza & Sandwich Shop are both open late enough to make the ride a full outing instead of just exercise.
That's a route that doesn't depend on either closure resolving on schedule, which is worth something given how often these timelines have already moved.
Do the Wheel Pass Math Before You Buy One
The Cannon Valley Trail isn't free for anyone 18 or older riding, hiking, or skating on it between April 1 and November 1. A day pass runs $7. A season pass runs $30. If you're only getting out there once or twice more before the season closes on November 1, the day pass is the obvious choice. But if you're planning even five more rides between now and then, the season pass pays for itself, and it covers you again next spring the moment the calendar flips back to April.
Given that the western half of the trail, the only fully open half right now, still offers a genuinely good ride to Welch and back, it's worth deciding early whether fall is a five-ride season or a two-ride season for your household before you buy the wrong pass.
A Trail Older Than Most of the Neighbors
Part of why this matters to people in Cannon Falls beyond the inconvenience of a fence is that the trail isn't new infrastructure. It's built on the old Chicago Great Western Railroad line, and the Cannon Valley Trail marked its 40th anniversary in May 2026. That's four decades of the same rail bed carrying bikes and walkers instead of freight, connecting Cannon Falls to Welch and Red Wing along a route the trail has now outlasted its original purpose on by a wide margin.
A trail that old accumulates infrastructure that eventually needs real replacement, not patching, which is exactly what's happening at Bridge R0497 and along the roughest stretch of pavement near the Red Wing end. The current construction isn't a sign of neglect. It's what maintaining something for 40 years actually looks like when the original materials finally reach the end of their working life.
If you've lived in Cannon Falls long enough to remember a different version of this trail, or you're new enough that this is the first construction season you've watched unfold, the practical takeaway is the same either way. Ride the open half this fall, budget your wheel pass around how often you'll actually use it, and don't hold your breath for a Red Wing run before next summer.
Living somewhere with a trail like this running through it, one that's been part of daily life here for 40 years and is still worth planning an evening around, is part of what makes Cannon Falls feel like home instead of just an address. If you're thinking about your next move here, or helping someone else find their way to a town where an evening bike ride ends at a local bakery instead of a highway exit, I'd love to help you find the right fit. Reach out to Megan Culhane and let's Turn the Key to New Beginnings.
