Steep and long hills in Kansas City area

I've been looking for hills to walk up (and down) in the Kansas City area.  Of course, most of Kansas City is pretty flat, and most of Kansas and Missouri are too for that matter.  I've been on some hiking and mountain biking trails that have some long gradual slope to them, but I'm really looking for something steeper.  I live in Olathe, KS, and there are actually some pretty decent hills in my neighborhood, but they are shorter than I was looking for.  I decided my definition for "long and steep" here is at least 0.3 miles and grade of at least 4%.

I finally realized that the best place to look for hill routes is on the Strava web site.  Strava is an application for mobile phones that lets you track your workout.  Another app along the same lines is MapMyRide.  I don't know as much about MapMyRide, but Strava lets people record "segments" that are significant for one reason or another.  It could be a whole trail or route, or just one hill, or one long flat spot.  And the great thing I just found is that on the Strava web site, you can "Search" and "Explore" segments, and Strava will tell you their distance, elevation gain, and average grade (although it seems several are not true, maybe people's GPS went bonkers).

So anyway, here are some steep hills in Kansas City area, in no particular order.  The ones I've listed are mostly in Johnson County, because that's where I live and know where to search, but I also think its hillier here than Jackson County.  Some of these I've tried and some I haven't.  If you know any other good ones, please let me know!

Lenexa, KS

(THESE FIRST 4 ARE ALL RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER, SO YOU CAN MAKE ONE HILLY WALK OUT OF THEM. THE FIRST THREE ARE THE ONES I'VE BEEN DOING A LOT)
1. Woodland Rd and Falcon Ridge Dr. -  0.5 miles, 157 ft. altitude (5.9%)  There is actually a sign at the top that says it is an 8% grade.  But that must be just the steepest part.

2. 91st from Woodland to Falcon Ridge Dr. - 0.3 miles, 140 ft. altitude (7%).  The segment calls it "Hamilton Hollow"

3. Lake Lenexa Trail to 91st and Falcon Ridge Dr. - 0.4 miles, 114 ft. altitude (5.4%)  This is the other side of Hamilton Hollow, above

4. 87th Lane from creek to 87th St. - 0.4 miles, 121 ft (5.5%)

Olathe, KS

1. Olathe KS Waterfall Hill, 119th and Clare Rd - 0.5 miles, 147 ft. altitude (5.5%).  And you have the nice scenery of the waterfall when its running in the warm months.

2. Olathe KS Cedar Creek Hill -  0.4 miles, 96 ft. altitude (4%). I haven't tried this one yet.  A little shorter and less steep than others, but there is a shorter segment of it that has a 6.6% grade

Kansas City, KS

1. Lots of Cat 4 Climbs! - Wow, Kansas City KS may have the best hills around!  I haven't tried any of these yet, and too many to list separate, but they look legitimate.

2. Rosedale Dr., Stinson to Shearer - 0.4 miles, 134 ft. altitude (5%) Looks interesting, on other side of Rosedale Park, and I know that park is a bit hilly.

3. Cambridge St. off of SW Blvd - Technically, this doesn't meet my "long" requirement since it is only .15 miles, according to Strava.  But I'm adding anyway since it is very steep (14%) and a couple people mentioned it in the comments.

Shawnee, KS

Never tried either of these

1.  Shawnee Mission Park, Dam to Tower - 0.5 miles, 133 ft. altitude (4.9%)

2. Lawrence Rd., Midland Rd to Lind Rd. . - 0.7 miles, 191 ft altitude (4.6%)

Kansas City, MO

1. Kessler South from Pershing - 0.4 miles, 165 ft. altitude (5.8%) This goes up to the Liberty Memorial

2. Hospital Hill, Gillham from 22nd to 26th -  0.5 miles, 137 ft altitude (4.9%).  This is on the Hospital Hill 1/2 Marathon route. 

3. Belleview to Observation Park - 0.4 miles, 173 ft altitude (7.8%).  Steepest on this list!

Blue Summit, MO

(These may technically be KCMO, but they're pretty close to the stadiums. They start right next to each other, so could be easily combined)

1. Emanuel Cleaver, 31st to 35th - 0.4 miles, 125 ft altitude (5.2%)

2. 31st, Van Brunt Blvd to Kensington - 0.6 miles, 158 ft. altitude, (4.0%)

Gladstone, MO

1. Waldron Drive - 0.6 miles, 217ft. (6%) -  Haven't tried this.  Not sure its Gladstone, but out by airport

Eddy-Ballentine Trail

My wife and I went hiking recently on the Eddy-Ballentine trail in Kansas City, MO.  I used my  MapMyFitness phone application to track our route via GPS, and that map is below.  We loved the terrain and wildlife.  There are lots of rock features, some hills, and some creek beds.  And we saw a deer and a turtle during our hike.

The wild life that we didn't appreciate were all the ticks.  Luckily my wife thought ahead of time that we should take precautions so we wore long pants and sleeves and hats.  When we finished hiking we checked each other for ticks and we literally had about 10 each!  Most of those we found on the outside of our clothing, but we both did also find a couple inside our clothing.  This was mid-Spring, which I think is a prime season for them.  But regardless, cover your skin when you hike there.

The other issue that we had was following the trail.  It is marked in many places, but the markers are just pretty small orange dots or arrows.  No real signs after the trail head.  You can see by the map that there are some loops. At one point we were on the northern loop and realized that we recognized the terrain and had missed the cutoff to get off the loop.  Then we back tracked and found the cutoff, but then we missed the next part too.  We had to check the MapMyFitness map on the phone to see where we had gone wrong.  If we hadn't have had that, we may have ended up at the golf course to the east, or somewhere else, I'm not really sure.

But again, it was a really nice trail, so if you're careful about the ticks and are careful (or familiar enough with the trail) to not get lost, then its a great hike right in Kansas City.



View Eddy-Ballentine Trail in a larger map