Kern River Parkway Trail

The Kern River Parkway Trail follows the Kern River for roughly 30 miles through and around Bakersfield, offering the city's best opportunity for cycling, running, and walking in a natural setting. The river corridor is lined with cottonwood and willow, and supports a surprisingly diverse range of bird life given the surrounding urban and agricultural landscape. The section closest to downtown, where Alfred Harrell Highway heads northeast toward the Kern River Canyon, is where most recreational users congregate.

The trail is at its best in spring and autumn, when temperatures are manageable and the river carries good water from Sierra snowmelt. In summer the heat makes extended outdoor activity difficult, though early morning runs and cycles are workable before 8am. The eastern end of the trail near Lake Ming and the Kern River Canyon is the most attractive section — here the landscape transitions from the flat valley floor to the foothills, with the granite walls of the canyon becoming visible as the trail climbs. The California Living Museum is accessible from the trail along Alfred Harrell Highway.

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A story
The Kern River has shaped Bakersfield's history as much as oil or the railroad. The river's reliable flow from the Sierra Nevada made the southern San Joaquin Valley farmable in an otherwise arid landscape. The city's founders positioned Bakersfield at the point where the river emerges from the Kern River Canyon — the last navigable stretch before the water spreads out into the valley floor and is diverted into the vast canal network that still irrigates the surrounding farmland.

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