The Underline in Miami: Two Parks and the Coral Gables Gap

"People in Miami-Dade are so used to broken promises that they are excited to see it come to life," Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado told the Miami Herald in August. Her district includes a long section of the Underline, and she lives near it. She said her neighbors talk about the trail and meet to walk it, and that "it really is building community."

She spoke just before the formal opening of the South Miami segment on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. That opening put seven of the Underline's planned 10 miles in service. The only piece still missing is the middle, through Coral Gables along the University of Miami. Friends of the Underline and Miami-Dade County still expect it to be done by the end of the year.

So for this fall, the Underline is really two parks with different personalities. The northern end, from Brickell through the Roads and Coconut Grove, has a weekly schedule of free events. The southern end, from South Miami to Dadeland, has gardens, micro-forests and play spaces that are designed to fill in over time. Knowing which end does what tells you which one to pick on a given evening, and it shows what the unfinished middle is supposed to add.

The Calendar Lives at the Brickell End

Nearly every recurring program on the Friends of the Underline events calendar is at the northern end, between the Miami River and Coconut Grove. This is the stretch that already connects all the way to the river.

The listings above describe the yoga, the HIIT session and the skate club as free. The next week shows how busy this end gets. Roll Skate Club meets Tuesday, Oct. 6, and the Pride Run goes out Wednesday, Oct. 7. UYoga follows on Thursday, Oct. 8. Saturday, Oct. 10 has three events. The South Florida Ethnobotanical Community Garden planting runs from 8 to 11 a.m. at Vizcaya Station Plaza. The market fills the Inter Stage all day. A free Levitt BLOC Miami concert starts at 5 p.m. On Wednesday, Oct. 14, a free UPilates mat-fusion class is back at the Inter Stage.

The Saturday market page calls it the return of the community market to Brickell. It promises fresh produce, artisan goods, food and music, and it suggests allowing 10 minutes to find parking. Brickell City Centre and the Brickell View Terrace Garage are the nearest garages. Metrorail riders can get off at Brickell Station, exit north and walk toward 8th Street.

The South End Was Planted to Grow In

Head south of Coral Gables and the trail changes. The newest segments have very little on the calendar. What they have is planting, and planting that is meant to get denser every season.

The southernmost leg runs 1.2 miles from the Dadeland South Metrorail station to Southwest 80th Street. At its north entry is a butterfly garden, which the Herald identified as Mariposa Gardens, next to a village of Underline-green birdhouses. One micro-forest is near the butterfly garden and another is just past Southwest 70th Avenue. These are compact clusters of native trees and shrubs, built to grow quickly into dense green. They support wildlife and cool the air along a busy stretch of U.S. 1.

The next 1.17 miles run north from there to Red Road, at the edge of Coral Gables. This is the segment that opened formally on Aug. 15. Its centerpiece is the Nikki Spoelstra Play Forest, a playground in a wooded setting with an outdoor reading room, a set of musical instruments and covered seating for parents. Nikki Spoelstra is a former Miami Heat dancer and a South Miami resident, and she donated $500,000 to sponsor it. The segment also connects directly to a South Miami Hospital meditation garden. The garden was built several years ago but stayed locked until the trail beside it was finished.

Building this segment also meant replacing a canal bridge just north of Southwest 80th Street. That bridge dated to the days when the corridor carried Henry Flagler's railroad.

The southern end's version of a regular stop is a business. The Underline put a bike repair stand with tools and a tire pump at Southwest 80th Street. Employees at the SOMI Bike Shop next door told the Herald that trail users stop in for service, gear, snacks and drinks. At the August opening, the Herald photographed visitors who had biked up to the new play forest.

Chewy Bark Park Already Behaves Like the Middle

In between the two ends, one spot already mixes them. Chewy Bark Park held its grand opening on Jan. 31, 2026. It sits on Ponce de Leon Boulevard near Southwest 42nd Street and Grand Avenue, across from Trader Joe's, with separate areas for small and large dogs, hydration stations and play features. By July the Herald was calling it "instantly popular."

It is also the only Coral Gables location with a recurring event. The Chewy Pack Walk meets on the third Thursday of each month, with the next ones on Oct. 15 and Nov. 19. The event page lists both a 6:30 to 8 p.m. window and a 7 to 8:30 p.m. walk after a check-in period, so confirm the time before you go. Its directions point to Lot 40 at 4500 Ponce de Leon Boulevard.

A park that started as a place to plant something now has a monthly event. That gives a fair preview of how the unfinished section is supposed to work.

What the University Stretch Is Designed to Add

The middle section will connect the planted southern end to the programmed northern end. Two of its named spaces are built for the kind of activity the north end already has. The Herald describes the section as holding some of the trail's most elaborate features.

• Pineland Courts, near Carrillo Street and Stanford Drive by the University of Miami, is planned with four pickleball courts, one regulation basketball court, seating, drinking fountains and bike parking. Pine Rockland-inspired planting and micro-forests surround it.
• Rock Ridge Plaza, on Ponce de Leon Boulevard west of Granada Boulevard, is described by Friends of the Underline as a gathering plaza for learning, food vendors, art activations and informal socializing.

Both spaces mix the two halves. Pineland Courts puts active sports inside the same native planting the south end is known for, and Rock Ridge Plaza is built for the vendor-and-performance format of the Brickell end. On timing, the county's Phase 3 project page still says only that the work is "expected to be completed in 2026." Underline founder Meg Daly has promised "a 10-mile-long party" once it is done, but no date has been announced.

Where the Two Ends Still Fall Short

Even after the middle opens, the trail will have weak spots at its transit stations. Those matter because the Underline is meant to carry commuters and errand trips as well as recreation.

At Dadeland North, the old M-Path connection behind the station garage is closed during construction. A route through the station is marked with green Underline circles on the floor, but signs tell cyclists to dismount and walk about a tenth of a mile. The Herald warned riders in cleated bike shoes to plan for that. The final approach to Dadeland South is also unfinished. Users currently squeeze through a narrow alley between fences and then a maze of signs and cones. Miami-Dade's Dadeland South Intermodal Station page expects that project to be finished in April 2027, with pedestrian detours in the meantime. The Douglas Road station is also under renovation, and the latest reporting described trail connections there as sketchy or missing.

Crossings need care too, especially at Kendall Drive and the State Road 878 exit ramp. The intersections have bright-green crosswalks, new signs and, in some places, no-right-on-red signals. Eulois Cleckley, CEO of Friends of the Underline, told the Herald that the group works with Miami-Dade and Florida Department of Transportation engineers to improve crossings after they open. He said there can be "a long learning curve" for drivers and trail users alike.

For now, the practical way to use the trail is to treat the two ends separately. Go north for the weekly schedule and south for the gardens and the play forest. The southern end's micro-forests will be taller by the time Pineland Courts and Rock Ridge Plaza open.

Being close to the trail is part of what many people value about homes along the U.S. 1 corridor. If you'd like to know how nearness to a specific Underline segment shows up in a home search or a listing, the team at Morris Hall can walk through it with you. Schedule a Consultation.