Getting around Riverside, Duluth, Minnesota
Part of the Riverside neighborhood guide. Back to the full guide.
Riverside is a car neighborhood at a genuine distance, with an unusually good bicycle option.
Drive times run about twenty minutes to downtown, eighteen to the Miller Hill corridor, twenty to the airport and twenty-two to Superior. Grand Avenue is the spine, connecting northeast toward West Duluth and southwest toward Smithville, Morgan Park and Fond du Lac. Proctor is over the hill to the north.
The useful mental adjustment is that Proctor is as close as Duluth for everyday shopping. Over the hill north is roughly the same drive as the Spirit Valley strip northeast, and Proctor has a walkable main street with grocery and hardware. Households here use whichever they were already heading toward.
Transit is likely absent and needs confirming. Far-west service has historically been very limited.
Cycling is the standout. The Munger Trail through the neighborhood gives paved, car-free riding for 70 miles in one direction and a link to the Norton Park trailhead in the other. You can ride to Jay Cooke State Park from your door. Grand Avenue itself is a fast arterial and not a comfortable riding route, so the good riding starts once you are on the trail.
Winter driving is a longer rural-feeling run than most of Duluth. Duluth averages 90.2 inches of snow a season on the 1991 to 2020 normals (NWS Duluth, accessed 2026-08-13), and the far west generally sees less lake-effect than the eastern shoreline. The neighborhood sits on low river ground rather than a hillside, but Grand Avenue is a longer drive on a route cleared as an arterial rather than a residential street, and driveways here can be long.
Biking: Exceptional for a neighborhood this small. The Willard Munger State Trail runs straight through, giving 70 paved car-free miles south and a direct link northeast to the Norton Park trailhead. Spirit Mountain's singletrack is five minutes up the hill. Grand Avenue itself is a fast arterial and not a comfortable riding route.
Getting around next door
Northeast, where the Munger and Western Waterfront trails begin and Indian Point gives boat access.
SmithvilleSouth along the river, sharing the same Census tract and a similar owner-heavy river-corridor profile.
Morgan ParkSoutheast along the river, the 1913 US Steel company town built of concrete block.
ProctorNorth over the hill, its own school district and a walkable small-town main street.
Fond du LacSouthwest along the river, the oldest community in Duluth and even quieter.