Katy Trail riders: A better - and far more scenic - detour using the historic Boonslick Road around the Salt Creek Bridge outage between Rocheport and Boonville

Katy Trail riders: Since 2019 the Salt Creek bridge on the Katy Trail between Rocheport and Boonville has been out, destroyed by the Missouri River flooding that year.

This low traffic, low stress detour around the Katy Trail Salt Creek Bridge outage is scenic and worth visiting even once the bridge is repaired!

State Parks plans to have the new bridge in place and open, perhaps as soon as May 2022.

However, in the meanwhile the question remains: How do you safely ride between Rocheport and Boonville?

State Parks suggests taking Hwy 40 - which is possible, but also narrow with no shoulders and at many times of the week, filled with fairly heavy and very fast traffic.

But there is a better way: MoBikeFed has created a beautiful, scenic low traffic/low stress alternative to that Hwy 40 bypass. The route is a MoBikeFedTriple Star Route, meaning that it is a high quality "Virtual Guided Tour" of the area with the route completely ground-truthed and all cues and turns checked.

As a bonus, the route follows the historic Rocheport-Franklin Road, which was part of the 1826 Boonslick Road route created from ages-old Native American trails through the area and turned into a pioneer wagon road by Daniel Boone's sons Nathan and Daniel Morgan.

• Katy Detour Route (Rocheport-Boonsville, 15 miles, bidirectional):
  • Visit the Katy Trail Salt Creek Detour Route at RideWithGPS
  • Download the route map and cue sheet
• Complete Old Boonslick & Santa Fe Trail Route (Columbia-Boone's Lick-Boonville, out-and-back or loop)
  • Old Boonslick & Santa Fe Trail Route at RideWithGPS (48 miles each way)
  • Old Boonslick, Santa Fe, & Katy Trails Loop Tour (95 miles Columbia-Boone's Lick-Boonville-Columbia)

This route shows how to connect from Rocheport to Boonville, bypassing the Katy Trail Salt Creek Bridge (closed 2019-2022) and also portions of the Katy Trail in that area commonly closed by flooding every spring, while also bypassing the busy, fast traffic on U.S. 40.

The route takes you past two primitive camping sites in the Davisdale Conservation Area, a visit to the historic Sulphur Springs Baptist Church (1881) and Sulphur Springs Cemetery (earliest graves dating the 1860s), access to the Moniteau Bluffs hiking trail and historic site, and a ride through the historic and scenic Davisdale Conservation Area. The CA has over 20 miles of scenic and seldom-used hiking trails to explore.

The route also takes you to a number of scenic and historic sites along the bypass route and along the Katy Trail between Rocheport and Boonville.

The section of the route near Boonville is back on the Katy Trail - but this area is filled with historical homes, buildings, monuments, and viewpoints. Franklin was a steamboat port, on the western end of the Boonslick Trail, and on the eastern end of the Santa Fe Trail.

The Hwy 40 detour--suggested by Missouri State Parks as its default detour route in this area--is a busy traffic U.S. highway with no shoulders and significant climbs.

This alternate route has more climbing--about 560 feet over 15 miles vs 360 feet for the Hwy 40 option--but FAR less traffic. The route also some amazing scenery, hiking trails, and area historic sites that are not directly accessible from the Katy Trail.

Even when the Katy Trail is not closed in this area, this alternate route is a scenic route well worth checking out.

Note that at low water, it is possible to cross Salt Creek via a short detour on levee roads & load gravel access roads and a low water crossing. Many Katy Trail cyclists report using this detour. It is not suggested or recommended by State Parks and will be impassable at high water (typically all spring and early summer, or any time it rains significantly). See a video of a cyclist using the low water crossing option here.

The route follows the historic Boonslick Road between Rocheport and Franklin.  Most of the road surface is just a little below the quality of the Katy Trail, and motor vehicle traffic is minimal.

The route takes you the north side of the Moniteau Bluffs hiking trail. From there you can take a short hike to the bluff overlook, which was visited and noted by Lewis and Clark. The expedition found pictographs in the area, which gave the bluffs their name. Unfortunately many of the pictographs were destroyed during construction of the MKT railroad tunnel.

The Harris-Chilton-Ruble House, built in 1832, is just a few blocks from the Katy Trail in New Franklin. The house is currently undergoing renovation.

Boone's Lick Road.  The 1826 route pioneered the Rocheport-Franklin Road.  Franklin is the end of the Boone's Lick Road and the start of the Santa Fe Trail.

The older house in the Cedar Grove complex was built in 1825.  Built alongside the Santa Fe Trail, this house saw a good deal of Santa Fe Trail traffic from the earliest times through its heyday.  The house is a short ride northwest of New Franklin via Hwy 87 and Z. It is a nice destination in itself, or a stop on the way to Boone's Lick State Historic Site, which is about 9 miles further.

Davisdale Conservation area is full of high trails and service roads like this. Service Roads are now open to adventurous cyclists as well as hikers.  The main route through the Conservation Area is on good, well maintained county gravel roads the follow the historic 1826 Boonslick Trail. Two primitive camping locations in the Conservation Area are directly on the route.

Related pages and routes:

• MKT Railroad History along the Katy Trail - things you can still see and visit (BikeKatyTrail.com)
• Katy Trail connectors, side trips, and loops (MoBikeFed)
• Katy-Rock Island Greenwood Gap Connector - ride the complete Katy Trail-Rock Island Trail route from the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City to the eastern terminus of the  Katy Trail in Machens, using this low-traffic, low-stress bypass route for the longest gap remaining in the statewide trail system.
• Bike MOPAC - experience the history and culture of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and MOPAC railroad towns all across Missouri.
• Many more historical & cultural oriented bicycle routes across Missouri