Trail Etiquette and Safety

Follow these simple trail etiquette and safety rules to ensure an easy and safe hiking experience.

Hiking trails encourage healthy recreation for everyone, from simple nature walks to backcountry treks. However, there are handful of spoken (and unspoken) rules that keep people safe and ensure happy coexistence with other users.

These are the universal trail etiquette and safety rules that help make trail interactions painless, and keep everyone safe.

Trail Etiquette Rules

1. Practice Leave No Trace guidelines for responsible ethics in the outdoors. These principles are the golden rules. They ensure that outdoor spaces are minimally disturbed by your presence.
2. Hikers going uphill have the right of way. This is because hikers descending can regain momentum easier. If you are descending, step off the trail to let them pass. However, sometimes they will be happy to rest for a second to let you pass, but that is up to them.
3. Individuals and small groups are generally supposed to yield to large groups.
4. On sparsely populated trails, it’s customary to say hello to people you pass. You can exchange important information about trail conditions, signage, or unexpected hazards. And it’s just the kind thing to do. But also be respectful if someone doesn’t want to engage further in a conversation.
5. Hikers and bikers yield to horses because, well, you try to explain to a horse that it should yield to you.
6. Bikers are meant to yield to hikers. But in most cases, hikers will voluntarily step out of the way of a fast-moving biker.
7. Bikers should call out to hikers when they are approaching, and notify you if and how many other bikers are following them.
8. Don’t destroy cairns or create your own. They are important trail markers, especially in places where trails are hard to follow like rocky surfaces. You could cause someone to get lost and possibly die.
9. Stay on trail to help minimize environmental impact. Don’t shortcut switchbacks because you can destroy vegetation, cause erosion, and disrupt water runoff systems.
10. If you need to go the bathroom in the backcountry, dig a hole at least 200 feet from any trail, campsite, or water (about 40 paces). This ensures that human waste doesn’t become too concentrated in one area.

Trail Safety Guidelines

1. Pack it in, pack it out. Even pack out biodegradable items, because wild animals will get them before they biodegrade. Then they will learn to associate humans with food.
2. Leave wild animals alone. Most of the time they will dart when they see you, but if they don’t, give them plenty of space.
3. Inform someone about your itinerary even if you are traveling with a group. Give them the name and location of the trail, when you plan to leave, and when they can expect to hear from you again.  Rescue crews will have a much better chance of finding you if they know where to look.
4. Extinguish campfires to cold. Even small embers that seem under control can become dangerous if wind picks up. Or embers can even travel underground via roots and other flammable materials.
5. Bring a first aid kit, and educate yourself on how to treat common trail injuries. (Sprains, cuts, hypothermia, heat exhaustion, etc)
6. Bring ample sun protection and extra layers.
7. Check the weather forecast, but prepare for the unexpected.
8. Bring a headlamp in case you are out past sunset.
9. Set reasonable mileage goals for everyone in your group, and don’t forget to account for trail conditions and elevation. Two miles on a flat trail is not the same as two miles up a rocky trail with 1000 ft elevation gain.
10. Don’t kick rocks downhill. Many trails have switchbacks, and even just a small rock traveling downhill can become life-threatening for anyone below.

Trail Etiquette And Safety

These few hiking rules and guidelines can make everyone safer on the trail. And they help people have a common understanding of how to share the trail.

Happy and Safe Hiking!

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