New bluff trail takes walkers and bikes off Bliss Road

Have you ever tried hiking or biking on Bliss Road, on the way up or down Grandad Bluff? 

There’s not much room for vehicle traffic, bike riders and pedestrians on that narrow, winding road. 

Now, the city of La Crosse has completed a connector trail which lets people use existing trails all the way up the bluff without having to use Bliss Road. 

“There’s not a great way for people to get from town up to this amazing Grandad Bluff overlook without going on the road,” Jed Olson of the Outdoor Recreation Alliance said. “So that either means it puts you in a car, or puts you on Bliss Road, and if anyone’s walked or biked Bliss Road, they know that it’s a bit of a gamble, you know, taking that into your own hands.”

Olson, and other members of the ORA, took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony atop Grandad on Friday morning, to dedicate the last half-mile connector for the Gateway Trail System through the bluffs. 

Roughly $300,000 was contributed to finance construction of the trail system.

The new connecting trail stretches from the Alpine Inn to a parking area close to the park atop Grandad.