The trail runs along the former bed of a part of the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad, a transportation unit led during its early years by Civil War General Ambrose Burnside.

The Cairo & Vincennes became a branch line of the Southern Railway before its trail section shut down in the late 1900s.

The northeast end of the trail is in Eldorado, on Trolley Road just north of U.S. Route 45.

The southwest end of the trail is west of Karnak just off Illinois Route 37 at the Cache river wetlands center

(Vienna, Karnak, Cache river center, Tunnel Hill, New Burnside, Stonefort, Carrier Mills, Harrisburg, and Eldorado) However, full services (restaurants, lodging, groceries) are only available in Harrisburg, Carrier Mills, and Vienna.