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Trail safety and warning signs

Signs to caution trail users about unexpected conditions or potential hazards. Signs may cajole, plead, explain, or threaten the user entering a park or trail. Where well-developed trail facilities are provided, the standard of care for users is higher than on a primitive trail. Risk management concerns are a big factor in providing more signs for what could be argued are trivial changes in trail surface, grade, or curvature. However, people are used to constant warnings on roadways, so many trail managers adopt highway standards for providing signs. The following examples are from a wide variety of trails across the United States.

Also see the photo galleries of maps at trailheads. and trailhead signs

Click on any photo to see it full size:

(Commentary and photos by Stuart Macdonald, November 2009)

Sign describes conditions, distance, and uses allowed as well as warning; as Emerald Bay State Park, CA; photo by Stuart Macdonald, September 20, 2007

Shoal Creek Trail, Austin, TX; photo by Stuart Macdonald, May 6, 2007

Rock sign warns hikers that trail drops off, Superior Hiking Trail, Duluth, MN; photo by Stuart Macdonald, September 7, 2007

Paved trail ends: Credit Island Park, Davenport, Iowa; photo by Stuart Macdonald, NOvember 19, 2006

Sign informs visitors that the paved trail to the overlook turns into a narrow, natural surface trail, Arches National Monument, Utah; photo by Stuart Macdonald, April 2, 2007

Approaching cliff along paved trail with rockfall potential, Parley's Canyon Trail, Salt Lake City, UT; photo by Stuart Macdonald, Sept. 23, 2007

Sign where bikeway steepens, Parley's Canyon Trail, Salt Lake City, UT; photo by Stuart Macdonald, December 30, 2006

Approaching a bridge on Baltimore and Annapolis Trail Park, Maryland; photo by Stuart Macdonald, November 16, 2006

Bridge approach ramp on the Crescent Trail south of Bethesda, MD; photo by Stuart Macdonald, June 16, 2007

Bikeway intersects pedestrian route as Cherry Creek Trail skirts shopping center in Denver; photo by Stuart Macdonald, November 2008.

Waller Creek Trail has received a lot of flooding, Austin, Texas; photo by Stuart Macdonald, July 15, 2007

Waller Creek Trail detour around flood channel, Austin, Texas; photo by Stuart Macdonald, July 15, 2007

Dayglo paint alerts trail users of drop-off, Sacramento River Trail, Redding, CA; photo by Stuart Macdonald, November 9, 2007

Irregular edge of trail painted to increase visibility, Sacramento River Trail, Redding, CA; photo by Stuart Macdonald, November 9, 2007

Sign alerts users that flat trail along river climbs hill, Sacramento River Trail, Redding, CA; photo by Stuart Macdonald, November 9, 2007

Sign where trail winds and crosses Shoal Creek, Austin, TX; photo by Stuart Macdonald, May 6, 2007

Where everything is flat, a 4% grade is noteworthy; Grand Forks Greenway National Recreation Trail, ND; photo by Stuart Macdonald, September 6, 2007

Sign along Shoal Creek Trail, Austin, TX; photo by Stuart Macdonald, May 6, 2007

Trail serves as maintenance road on canalside bikeway in Phoenix, AZ; photo by Stuart Macdonald, June 3, 2008

Roller skaters warned of change in surface at bridge; community trail on Eastern Shore of Maryland; photo by Stuart Macdonald, March 9, 2008