Touring * Beginner *

From State Highway 99, exit at U.S. 132 (L Street). Turn right on 9th, left on D, and right at Yosemite Boulevard (you're still on Highway 132). After 1.5 miles heading east, turn left onto Phoenix Avenue. Follow Phoenix until it dead-ends at Edgebrook. Across Edgebrook, take the unnamed street dipping down toward the creek, into the La Loma Park parking lot.

This popular bike path has excellent pavement and winds through a wide, mostly natural creekside area, with bathrooms located at both ends of the trail. La Loma Park has clean sidewalks and a basketball court for in-line activity and general fooling around. The beautiful natural and enhanced landscape of Dry Creek also draws local joggers, walkers, and bicyclists, along with a large population of magpies and ground squirrels. At the downtown end of the trail, the vegetation becomes a bit denser and wilder just before Moose Park. Moose Park itself has its own brand of wildness--it's a local homeless peoples' hangout best avoided after dark. Some local skaters venture beyond here for a bit of street skating, but it's officially against the law to skate in downtown Modesto or on school property.