Plano Bike Trails #3: Bluebonnet Trail

Bluebonnet Trail lives up to its name, with lots of beautiful wildflowers blooming throughout the year. There aren’t a lot of hills in Plano, but there are a few shallow, softly rolling hills on this route, and they look gorgeous when the wallflowers are in bloom. At first, I was turned off by this trail, because it follows the path of the power lines. However, if you look at it another way, this land might otherwise be useless for development with the power lines on it — so it’s kind of amazing that the City of Plano turned it into a lovely multi-use trail for everyone to enjoy. During the height of COVID, this trail felt like a little pedestrian road to me, with lots of foot traffic.

About Bluebonnet Trail

This is a LONG trail that goes mosty West/East and connects with many other Plano trails, including Preston Ridge Trail and Chisholm Trail. I always thought the West section of this trail started on Preston Road, where it intersects with Commonsgate. However, The City of Plano website shows a PDF with the trail starting a little further west, at Midway Road, and continuing just north of the new Windhaven Park…but it looks like that section does not connect with the rest of the trail. They must be working on that. Anyhoo, the whole thing is about 11 miles, which is not too shabby!

Fun Connections to Bluebonnet

The East side of Bluebonnet Trail runs all the way to Central Expressway—and if you like, you can link up to Oak Point Park Nature preserve from there, and ride for many more miles. Or, if you want to extend your ride from the West end of the trail, it’s pretty easy to make your way over to Legacy Trail from Preston. (That’s not a direct connection, but pull up Google Maps on your phone, and you can get there pretty quickly.)

Sunset

Because this is an East/West trail, it has some great sunset views. Don’t ask me about sunrise; I try not to get up that early. Hope you enjoy the photos! Feel free to share your own in the comments.