I want to tell you about a stretch of Sioux Falls that most people drive past on their way somewhere else. The Riverwalk along the Big Sioux near Cherapa Place — that bend of path between the pedestrian bridge and the old railroad corridor on the east bank — is the kind of walk that makes you feel like you actually live here, even if you’re just visiting for a weekend.
I’ve done this loop probably forty times. In January, when the river ice stacks up in jagged plates and the cottonwoods go skeletal against a white sky, it’s almost brutally beautiful. In late May, when the path is soft from snowmelt and the redwing blackbirds are shouting at everything, it’s something else entirely. The point is: it holds up across seasons in a way that a lot of Sioux Falls attractions don’t.
The Riverwalk here isn’t a trail so much as a series of connected paths and small plazas that weave between the river, the mixed-use development at Cherapa, and the quieter residential stretches heading south. Start at the pedestrian bridge near Phillips Avenue and just walk. The pavement is well-maintained, there are benches at reasonable intervals, and the river is close enough that you can hear it — actually hear it — which feels like a minor miracle in a midwestern city.
What makes this particular stretch worth a dedicated trip rather than an afterthought is the way it strings together. You get the urban edge of the Cherapa development — Josiah’s on one end for coffee, the open plaza where food trucks set up on warm Fridays — and then the path opens up and suddenly you’re watching a heron work the shallows while someone’s dog loses its mind at a squirrel twenty feet away. That kind of tonal whiplash, city to nature in a hundred steps, is something Sioux Falls doesn’t advertise loudly enough.
In terms of logistics: parking is easy off 6th Street or in the Cherapa lot on weekday mornings. The whole loop I’d recommend runs about two miles at a comfortable pace, with zero elevation gain worth mentioning. It’s genuinely stroller-friendly on the paved sections. Dogs are welcome on leash. There’s no fee, obviously — it’s a public path — which makes it one of the better free hours you can spend in this city.
Go on a Tuesday morning if you can. Weekends bring more traffic, which isn’t terrible, but the Riverwalk is at its best when it’s quiet enough to hear the water. Bring coffee from whatever spot you prefer nearby and give yourself time to stop on the pedestrian bridge and look both directions down the river. The downstream view toward the falls, with the city skyline sitting low on the horizon, is the kind of thing that ends up on your camera roll for reasons you can’t fully explain.
Sioux Falls sometimes gets talked about as a place people pass through. The Riverwalk at Cherapa is the kind of thing that makes you want to stay a little longer and figure out what you’ve been missing.
