United States/Trails
This page documents the best practices for mapping backcountry trails in the U.S., established by community consensus and compiled by members of the Trails Working Group.
The goal of this page is to provide specific guidance for mapping trails in the U.S., with examples that will be familiar to an American audience. It does not intend to contradict or replace global tagging guidelines documented elsewhere on the wiki. The See also section at the bottom of this page contains links to other wiki pages which are also relevant to trail and backcountry mapping.
Background
The United States contains over 1.2 million square miles of public land, most of which is open for recreational use. Access to these lands is provided by a network of trails totaling roughly half a million miles. Roughly 75% of all US public land is managed by four federal agencies: the National Park Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Most of the remainder is managed by state government agencies.
Many popular outdoor navigation apps use trail data from OpenStreetMap, including AllTrails, CalTopo, Gaia GPS, Komoot, onX, Ride with GPS, and Strava. Millions of people use these apps to navigate when recreating in the outdoors. Improving the accuracy and completeness of OpenStreetMap's trail data helps equip these people with the information they need to make good decisions in the backcountry, which improves public safety and helps protect and preserve our wild places for future generations.
Official and unofficial trails
Most US land management agencies distinguish between official trails (sometimes called system trails) and unofficial trails (sometimes called non-system trails, social trails, or desire paths).
Official trails are those that are part of the land manager's official management plan. They may be signposted on the ground and shown on official maps, and they may receive periodic maintenance by official trail crews. Unofficial trails are any other trails that exist on the land, including social trails (trails that form due to people repeatedly walking along the same path), trails that were once official but have been decommissioned, and trails that were built without permission from the land owner or managing agency.
In OpenStreetMap, official trails on US public land should be tagged with operator=* (where * is replaced with the name of the land management agency). Unofficial trails should be tagged with informal=yes. To determine whether a trail is official, check the maps and other resources published by the relevant land manager (or contact them if you can't find such resources).
Suggested spellings for common operator values, based on the most widely used conventions:
- operator=National Park Service
- operator=US Forest Service
- operator=US Bureau of Land Management
- operator=US Fish and Wildlife Service
- operator=Michigan Department of Natural Resources (or similar for many other states)
When multiple organizations cooperatively manage a trail or other feature, you can list the names of each agency separated by semicolons. For example operator=US Forest Service;US Bureau of Land Management.
If you're unsure how to spell the name of the relevant operator, try to follow local conventions if they exist, and use your judgement if they don't. Avoid abbreviations like operator=NPS since they can be ambiguous.
Allowed modes of travel
It's useful to know whether travel along a trail is allowed, and by which modes (on foot, on a bicycle, on horseback, using various kinds of motorized vehicle, etc). In OpenStreetMap, this is described using a family of tags called access tags.
The top-level tag is access=* and can take on values like access=yes or access=no, as well as other more specific values. A full list can be found on the Access page. You should refer to that page for the formal definitions, but here is an overview of some of the values that are relevant to trails and related features:
- access=yes - for things that the public has a legal right to use (e.g. it's on public land and not explicitly closed)
- access=no - for things that the public isn't allowed to use
- access=private - for things on private property where you can only use it if you have the owner's permission
- access=permissive - for things on private property but which the owner allows the public to use (though they aren't legally required to)
- access=permit - for things you need a special permit to use (e.g. a backcountry camping permit in a National Park)
- access=discouraged - for things you are legally allowed to use but the land manager discourages (e.g. social trails on some public lands)
For things like a camp site, a toilet, or a parking lot, access=* is usually sufficient to describe who can use the feature. But for roads and trails, it's often necessary to be more specific about which modes of travel are allowed. For this, you can use tags like foot=*, bicycle=*, horse=*, motor_vehicle=*. These tags are more specific than access=* and are allowed to take on all of the same values that the general access=* tag can. For example, a trail that is open to hikers but closed to bikes could be tagged foot=yes + bicycle=no.
These mode-of-transit tags form a hierarchy, and more specific tags override the values of more general ones. So for example motor_vehicle=no + atv=yes means that a trail allows ATVs, but disallows all other types of motor vehicles. Again, see the Access page for the complete hierarchy of tags, but here is an overview of some modes of transit that are relevant to trails:
- foot=* – pedestrians/hikers
- bicycle=* – including both road bikes and mountain bikes
- electric_bicycle=* – commonly known as an e-bike or EMTB (electric mountain bike)
- horse=* – horses and their riders
- motor_vehicle=* – all motorized vehicles (depending on jurisdiction, motor vehicle restrictions may or may not also apply to electric bicycles)
- motorcycle=* – includes dirt bikes
- atv=* – also called a quad-bike, quad, or 4-wheeler
- snowmobile=*
- motorcar=* – conventional road-legal automobiles
An additional access tag value to know about is designated. This value is meant to be used with the specific mode of travel tags (foot=designated, bicycle=designated, horse=designated, etc), but not with the general access=* tag. Like yes, designated means that the public has a legal right to use the specified mode of travel on the trail. But designated additionally implies that the land manager specifically intends the trail for this type of use. For example, a trail which is specifically intended for mountain biking (MTB) use, but which people are also allowed to hike on, might be tagged bicycle=designated + foot=yes.
One final note: access tags document legal restrictions, not practical feasibility. For example, if a trail allows horses, but riding there is difficult or dangerous, do not tag it horse=no. Instead, use an appropriate value of horse_scale=* to indicate the difficulty.
Access for official and unofficial trails
Whether or not travel is permitted on unofficial trails varies: each management agency has its own policies that apply by default, which may be overridden by local regulations for a specific park or wilderness area, or by rules for a specific trail. Travel rules are not always signposted on the ground.
Use access=no if travel is not permitted on a trail, either official or unofficial (official trails may still be temporarily closed for example). If travel is legal but the land manager has posted signs or other indicators to dissuade people from using the trail, use access=discouraged. Use access=private for trails on private land. Otherwise, add specific access tags for the type of uses that are allowed (e.g. foot=*, bicycle=*, horse=*, motor_vehicle=*, etc).
Example tagging for specific situations
The following table shows how to apply the operator=* and informal=* tags, and the access=* tag family, to various situations you might encounter.
| Situation | Tagging |
|---|---|
| An official trail |
|
| A closed trail |
Trails that have been closed for a long time may become overgrown, eroded, or otherwise degraded. Consider adding a lifecycle prefix to the highway=* key, such as disused:highway=path or abandoned:highway=path depending on the situation. |
| A social trail, and access to this social trail, or social trails in general, is prohibited by the land owner/manager.
(as evidenced by posted signs or markings, or by text on e.g. the official website or visitor maps) |
|
| A social trail, and access to this social trail is not prohibited outright, but is officially discouraged by the land owner/manager.
(as evidenced by posted signs or markings, or by text on e.g. the official website or visitor maps) |
|
| A social trail, and access to social trails is not prohibited or discouraged by the land owner/manager | |
| A trail leaving public land for private property where the landowner does not allow access by the general public. |
FAQ
How do I tag an official trail that is not maintained?
Add operator=* for the name of the managing agency, and maintained=no to indicate that the trail is not currently receiving maintenance.
But if it isn't maintained, what makes it official?
Ultimately a trail is official if the land manager says that it is. Land managers may determine that a trail is lower priority and choose not to spend their resources maintaining it for a time. They may also choose to close the trail (by posting signs at the trailhead for example). But unless the land manager explicitly and permanently decommissions the trail, it still has official status (and should be tagged with an operator=*).
Should I delete a trail if it's closed, abandoned, or illegal to use?
No. It's generally better to leave the trail in OpenStreetMap, and tag it with more information to describe it appropriately. Closed trails can be tagged with access=no. Abandoned trails can be tagged abandoned:highway=path instead of highway=path.
OpenStreetMap aims to describe everything that physically exists in the world, including trails that may not be suitable for use by the public. This data has valuable uses for wilderness firefighting, search and rescue, and for researchers to study the impact of human visitation on natural environments.
Map vendors generally take care to appropriately display OpenStreetMap trails to their users. For example, AllTrails and Gaia GPS both clearly label trails that are tagged access=no as "No Access" so that users know they can't hike on those trails. And they both show trails tagged as informal=yes using a fainter line, which helps guide users to stick to the official trails that are shown more prominently.
There's also a practical reason to avoid deleting unwanted trails from OpenStreetMap: someone is likely to add them back in later when they notice the trails are missing. When they do, they might not know to add the appropriate access=* or informal=* tags, which could cause the trail to show up prominently on various maps.
For more on this, see Why can't I delete this trail?
Should I delete a trail if it physically does not exist?
Maybe, but it depends on what you mean by "does not exist".
If the trail is a bit overgrown, you can tag it as maintained=no and disused=yes. If it's very overgrown, you can tag it as an abandoned:highway=path instead of highway=path.
Some trails traverse areas of bare rock or other hard surfaces where the path disappears, but people still follow a consistent route, and that route may be indicated by cairns, blazes, or other markers. These trails can be tagged with an appropriate trail_visibility=* value.
Some trails cross terrain such as riverbanks or glaciers where the physical path on the ground is obliterated seasonally, but then reforms again in more or less the same place the following year as people continue to travel along it. Such trails can perhaps be tagged with an appropriate seasonal=* value. Note that any segment of trail which traverses a glacier should almost certainly have a sac_scale=* tag to indicate the technical nature of the terrain.
If a trail is mapped in OpenStreetMap that there is truly no physical trace of on the ground, then it should probably be deleted. However, consider why the trail was mapped in the first place: it may be that someone thought there was a trail here when looking at satellite imagery and/or GPS traces from a source like the Strava Heatmap. So it may be better to retag the trail as not:highway=path and add a note=* explaining why, so that another mapper doesn't make the same mistake in the future.
What's the difference between the designated and yes access tag values?
The access value yes indicates that the public is legally allowed to use the trail. The value designated is similar, but slightly stronger: it means that the trail is explicitly intended for that particular mode of travel.
For example, use foot=designated when a trail is explicitly intended for hiking (e.g. by signs at the trailhead or on the official website). If that's not the case, but you are nonetheless legally allowed to walk on the trail, use foot=yes.
Only use designated with specific modes of travel like foot=designated or bicycle=designated. Don't use access=designated; it is meaningless. In most cases you shouldn't use designated on unofficial trails either (use yes if travel along these trails is permitted).
How do I specify a seasonal closure?
You can use a conditional restriction on an access=* tag, like this:
The above indicates that the path is closed to hiking from November 1 to March 31, but open the rest of the year.
If the exact dates aren't known, you can do something like foot:conditional=no @ (Nov-Mar) or foot:conditional=no @ (winter). Or you can indicate that the trail is closed in certain weather conditions like no @ (snow) or no @ (wet).
In addition to roads and trails, conditional restrictions can also be used on anything else that has seasonal closures, like campgrounds, parking lots, wilderness huts, etc.
How do I indicate that a day-hike permit is required for a trail? (e.g. Angel's Landing, Half Dome)
Use access=permit. It's also good practice to add the permit value for the specific type of access that is controlled by permit. For example Half Dome is a hiker-only trail, so it should be tagged access=permit + foot=permit + bicycle=no + horse=no etc.
How do I indicate that a permit is required to camp overnight, but not to day hike?
Use camping=permit + foot=yes (plus other tags for any additional modes of transit that are allowed).
How should I tag a wheelchair accessible trail?
If the trail is fully ADA compliant, use wheelchair=yes. If it doesn't meet ADA standards, but it is wide, flat, and smooth enough that wheelchair hikers may still navigate it, use wheelchair=limited.
Additional tags that are especially relevant to wheelchair users are surface=*, smoothness=*, width=*, and incline=*.
How can I indicate whether dogs are allowed?
Use dog=yes if dogs are allowed, or the more specific dog=unleashed if they are allowed off-leash, or dog=leashed if they are allowed only on-leash. Use dog=no if dogs are not allowed at all. Note that this tag applies to pets; service animals are usually exempt from restrictions.
How should I name the trail?
Use the official name of the trail, as it is shown on signs and official maps. Expand any abbreviations ("Mountain" not "Mtn", etc). Write the name in title case.
Examples of real trail names formatted in OpenStreetMap's preferred style:
- name=Granite Mountain Trail
- name=Pratt River Connector Trail
- name=Happy Creek Forest Walk
- name=Easy Tiger - mountain bike trails often have colorful names that may not end in "Trail"
Names should contain the name only, and not additional information. Some examples of what not to do:
- name=Example Trail (closed) - instead add the tag access=no
- name=Example Trail (caution: flash flooding risk) - instead use hazard=flooding and/or flood_prone=yes
- name=Example Trail (private property) - instead add the tag access=private
- name=Example Trail #654 - instead add ref=654
See Names for more best practices on naming.
Does every trail need to have a name?
No. Some trails (especially unofficial ones) have no name, and it's considered bad practice to invent one when adding the trail to OpenStreetMap.
If it is useful to describe a nameless trail's purpose or destination, you can use a description=* tag. For example:
- description=summit trail
- description=climber's access trail to Snow Creek Wall
But not all trails are interesting enough to need a description either. For example a spur trail that accesses a viewpoint, campsite, or pit toilet is fine without either a name=* or description=* tag.
What if a trail overlaps with a portion of another trail, or follows a road for some distance?
When two trails overlap, you may wish to use route relations to differentiate the two (or more) named routes that follow the same physical path. Route relations are lists of individual trail segments. The relation as a whole can have its own tags, including name=* and any other relevant properties.
For example, the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail overlaps with the 213 mile John Muir Trail in central California. In OpenStreetMap, each trail is given its own route relation. Here's the JMT's relation 1244828
1244828 and here's the one for Section H of the PCT 1244686 1244686, which overlaps it. The relations each have a list of individual trail ways, many of which are common to both routes. The trail ways themselves, for example this one 1014440790
1014440790, are tagged with the appropriate physical attributes and access restrictions. They also are tagged name=John Muir Trail and use an alt_name=* for the name of the PCT. Which name to choose as the primary name for the segment depends on local conventions, but usually the more specific name (i.e. the name of the shorter or less notable trail) is used.
Note that route relations are allowed for any route, not just for long distance trails like the PCT and the JMT.
Where a trail follows a roadway, the shared segment should be tagged with the highway=* classification for the road (not the trail), and the name=* and ref=* should also be those of the road. You may also consider creating a route relation for the trail, which can include the shared segment of road.
How do I tag a trail for motorized recreation vehicles like dirt-bikes, ATVs, or UTVs/side-by-sides?
Motorized trails that are wide enough for a car should be tagged as highway=track. Narrower motorized trails that are only wide enough for dirt bikes or ATVs to use should be tagged highway=path, to avoid misrepresenting them as roads.
- Add access tags such as motorcycle=* and atv=* to indicate which types of vehicles are allowed.
- If larger vehicles (e.g. Jeeps and similar road-legal 4WD vehicles) are allowed, add motor_vehicle=yes. If not, add motor_vehicle=no. Note that more specific tags like motorcycle=* and atv=* override the value of motor_vehicle=* for those specific vehicle types.
- Some motorized trails have width restrictions (for example a trail may indicate that it allows motorcycles, ATVs, and OHVs up to 50″ wide). Use maxwidth=* to indicate a legal width restriction (e.g. maxwidth=50"). If there is no legal width restriction, it may still be useful to tag the physical width of the trail using the width=* tag.
- If vehicles are allowed on this trail even if they are not legal on normal roads, add ohv=yes.
- For trails that permit larger vehicles, add 4wd_only=yes if the trail has signs indicating that it should only be used by high clearance 4WD vehicles.
Should I map established campsites in the backcountry?
Yes, absolutely! This helps people to find previously established campsites instead of creating new ones, which reduces human impact on the terrain and vegetation.
You can map a campsite as a node tagged tourism=camp_pitch. This tag is meant for a small, usually flat location where either one tent or a few tents can be pitched; or if along a road, where a camper van or trailer can be parked. Be careful not to confuse this tag for the similar sounding tourism=camp_site: that tag is meant for what in American English is usually called a campground (i.e. a larger area with many individual camp pitches and related amenities).
If a camp pitch is intended for tent camping, add tents=yes. If it is possible and permitted to park a camper van or trailer at the location, add caravans=yes. You may also consider adding tags like capacity:tents=* for the number of tents that will fit at the site, or maxlength=* for the maximum length of vehicle that is allowed at the site.
Most camp pitches in the backcountry have no facilities (picnic table, fire ring, showers, etc). Tag these as backcountry=yes. This helps distinguish them from camp pitches at developed campgrounds where people might expect to find these amenities.
If a camp pitch is signed on the ground or shown on official maps, you can tag it with its operator=*. If not, tag it as informal=yes. Informal camp pitches are still very valuable to map: many land managers in the US encourage campers to use previously established campsites even if the area does not have any official campsites, and OpenStreetMap can help visitors find these established sites.
How do I map a trailhead?
Create a node tagged highway=trailhead. The trailhead node should be part of the trail Way and should be located where people usually start their journey (beside a trailhead sign board or guidepost if one exists, or simply at the point where the trail connects to a road or parking area).
If the trailhead has a name, you can add it as the name=* tag. Many trailheads have names that are similar to the trail that departs from them (e.g. "Mailbox Peak Trail" begins at "Mailbox Peak Trailhead"), but sometimes multiple trails begin at the same trailhead and in those cases the trailhead may have a unique name. Consider also tagging the operator=* of the trailhead.
How can I make sure other mappers don't mistakenly change the tags on a trail?
You can use the tag note=* to leave a message for other mappers who edit the trail in the future. This can be useful for describing tricky things about the trail so that future mappers don't mistakenly retag it (for example access=no + note=trail is closed due to rockfall but official website hasn't been updated yet). It can also be useful if there's information you want to capture about the trail that you don't know how to tag; someone else may be able to improve it in the future.
What should I do to flag that a trail needs further attention?
The tag fixme=* can be used to call attention to a trail (or other feature) that needs further work. You can put any text you want in the fixme=* tag's value, similar to note=*. However there are also a few fairly common structured ways to use a fixme:
- fixme=resurvey on a trail that needs its alignment improved with GPS traces or better satellite imagery.
- fixme=verify on something where the tags might be outdated or incorrect, and needs checking.
- fixme=continue on a trail that is only partly drawn in, and needs to be extended. Usually this tag is placed on the end node of the way.
Finally, if something is wrong on the map but you're unsure which element to edit or how to fix it, you can leave a Note on the map (not to be confused with a note=* tag on an element). Notes are comments on the map that are visible to other mappers. Anyone can add a note to the map, even if they haven't created an OSM account. It can be a useful tool for people who want to suggest corrections to OpenStreetMap but don't have the time or knowledge to contribute actual edits.
See also
- Hiking – further information about many tags relevant to hiking trails
- Walking Routes – how to tag hiking route relations
- Camp sites – how to tag campgrounds (tourism=camp_site) and the amenities found there
- Pistes – how to map ski runs (pistes), including both resort and backcountry routes
- Climbing – how to tag outdoor rock climbing areas, routes and associated features
- Mountain biking – how to tag MTB trails
- Natural – tags for natural features (cliffs, arches, mountain peaks, etc)
- Proposal:Mountains – additional tags that were proposed for tagging couloirs, cirques, notches, and other features of interest to mountaineers