New Trail Opens in Kohl Park

Ribbon cutting for Kohl Park Trail. Photo taken Oct. 7, 2026, by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County Parks held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday for a 2.26-mile expansion of the Oak Leaf Trail.

The new trail section runs through Kohl Park along W. County Line Road near the city’s border with Mequon and Ozaukee County. The trail is the latest project aimed at eventually creating a seamless trail loop across the county’s North Side.

The Kohl Park trail connects to the Zip Line at AC Hanson Park near N. 70th Street and W. Brown Deer Road. The Zip Line runs between the Milwaukee River Line in Estabrook Park and the Ozaukee Interurban Trail.

“It was a major gap in this part of the county and with the city of Milwaukee,” said Milwaukee County Parks Director Guy Smith. “So it’s all about connectivity.”

The trail is expected to make it easier for nearby residents to visit Kohl Park and the nearby Mequon Nature Preserve, 8200 W. County Line Road, and create direct pedestrian access for residents living in the area.

“So this stretch, those couple miles here are critical in connecting so many different communities together,” said Kristin Thiel, executive director of the Mequon Nature Preserve.

When Parks created a comprehensive plan for Kohl Park more than 20 years ago, one of the elements included in the plan was a nature center, Smith said. “Well, we don’t need to duplicate that because we’ve got the Mequon Nature Center here,” Smith said.

Construction on the $1.97 million trail project began in 2025. Parks secured a state-awarded federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant in 2020 for the project.

The Kohl Park trail was initially devised roughly two decades ago and included in Parks’ 2007 trail network plan. The county has managed to develop eight of the 19 trails outlined in the plan and recently finished an update to the comprehensive trails plan.

“So I’m especially pleased to see that we have new investments here, and this is a great example of how different levels of government, nonprofit organizations, and community members can work together to make a project happen that benefits all parts of the community,” said area Sup. Deanna Alexander.

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