Trailforks Features

Trail Mapping Toolsfor riders, builders & trail associations

The editor, data layers, review workflow and admin tools behind the world's largest trail database. Map a trail from a GPX file or the activity heatmap, keep your network accurate, and give your community trail data they can trust.

Map a Trail Tools for Trail Associations
  • 869,690trails mapped
  • 27,549trail networks
  • 183,837points of interest
  • 4,793,902trail reports
Trailforks trail editor drawing a trail over colour-coded activity recordings
How trail data gets made

Crowd-sourced, locally curated

Trailforks combines millions of recorded activities, community contributors and local trail associations. Every change is tracked, reviewed and reversible, so the map keeps getting better without losing what was there.

  1. Record

    Riders, runners and hikers record activities in the app or sync them from Garmin and other devices. Anonymized lines from public activities build the activity heatmap.

  2. Detect

    Trailforks finds where people travel but no trail is mapped, and flags mapped trails that drift away from where people actually go.

  3. Map

    Contributors draw, upload or paint trails in the editor, with snapping, imagery and heatmap overlays to get the line right.

  4. Review & publish

    Local admins and trusted users approve new content and edits. Every revision is kept, compared and reversible, like a wiki.

For every contributor Free account

The Trail Editor

A full GIS-grade line editor in your browser, built for trails. Start a trail four different ways, then clean it up with tools designed around real GPS data.

Four ways to start a trail

  • Upload a file — GPX, KML, KMZ or TCX from any GPS device or app
  • Draw on the map — over satellite imagery, topo or the heatmap
  • Paint from the heatmap — trace the line people actually travel
  • Crop from an activity log — cut the trail out of your own recorded activity

Track tools

Edit nodes Snap to trails & roads Align to activity lines Reverse direction Crop start & end Simplify Draw a polygon to bulk remove messy points Undo Overlay activity log on map to trace Duplicate detection Auto region from GPS

Activity recordings are visible to every contributor inside the editor, so you can trace the real line. The lines are colour-coded by activity type and come only from public activities.

Before you start, read the Trailforks mapping standards & policies (Español).

Trailforks trail editor with activity recording lines over the map and GPS track tools
The trail editor over activity recordings: cyan is recent mountain biking, yellow older biking, red moto and blue hiking.

Align to activity lines

One key press pulls an existing trail onto the centre of the activity recordings around it. Paint mode lets you align just the section that is off.

Smart snapping

Trail ends snap to connecting trails and roads so the network stays routable for the route planner and turn-by-turn navigation. Hold ALT to place a point freely.

Start from open data

Prefill a new trail from an OpenStreetMap path, a USFS trail, a Motor Vehicle Use Map route or a detected trail candidate, then add the local knowledge.

Better data in, better data out

Data layers for mapping

Toggle the same layers in the editor and on the Trailforks map. Line up a trail against recorded activities, check it on fresh imagery and topo, and see who manages the land it crosses.

Activity recordings

Anonymized lines built only from public activities, separate for summer and winter, and colour-coded by activity type: recent biking older biking moto hiking

Free account in the editor Pro on the map

Heatmaps

Biking heatmap, jump heatmap and your personal heatmap of everywhere you have been, plus Gaia GPS public tracks.

Pro Gaia tracks Free

OpenStreetMap

OSM trails, OSM GPS traces and the Missing Trails layer: OSM paths not on Trailforks yet, each with an “Add to Trailforks” button.

Free

Satellite & aerial imagery

Mapbox Satellite free, plus Google Satellite, ArcGIS World Imagery, cloud-free FreshSat, USDA NAIP and satellite topo.

Free Pro

Topo maps

Trailforks Topo, US Topo, USGS and historic topos, and about 15 national topo maps including Canada, SwissTopo, New Zealand, Norway and Japan.

Free Pro

Terrain

Contours and dynamic hillshade free, plus slope angle, slope aspect, elevation colours, trail and hike steepness, and bedrock geology.

Free Pro

Land & access

Public land and land ownership, wilderness and roadless areas, tribal and Indigenous lands, Native Land territories and timber harvests.

Pro Native Land Free

Government trail data

USFS trails and roads, Motor Vehicle Use Maps, USFS recreation sites, long-distance trails, thru-hikes and snowmobile trails.

Pro
Trailforks map Layers panel with the OpenStreetMap missing trails layer and satellite imagery
Layers on the Trailforks map: imagery, topo, OSM and heatmap layers in one panel.
Beyond the line

Everything you can map

A trail network is more than trails. Map the whole place, in the same contribute workflow.

Trails

GPS line, activity types, difficulty, direction, e-bike rules, seasons, closures and land manager.

Bulk import from KML

Regions & trail networks

Draw a boundary and place it in the hierarchy, country to riding area. Each region becomes its own mini site.

Riding areas, bike parks, trail centres

Points of interest

Parking, trailheads, viewpoints, water, shelters and technical trail features.

Bulk add POIs

Polygons

Closures, danger zones, logging, private land and land owner areas shown on the map.

Land owner polygons for admins

Routes

Recommended loops, popular rides and race courses built from trails with the route planner.

Auto-routed on the trail network

Trail reports

Trail status, ground conditions, hazards and logs of trail work done.

Bulk status updates

Skill parks

Jump parks, pump tracks, BMX and motocross tracks with their own features and difficulty.

Features & lines

Photos & videos

Geotagged media linked to trails, with suggestions for trails you have completed.

Trail sign photos
Free for trail associations Region admin

Tools for trail associations & land managers

Local associations get control of the content in their region. Decide what is public, keep the inventory accurate and show land managers and funders how the trails are used. Why associations use Trailforks.

Bulk trail editor

Edit every trail in a network on one map and save it all as a single revision. The same track tools as the trail editor, with unsnapped endpoints and self-crossing points highlighted, cleanup flags you can clear, and an elevation profile for the selected trail.

  • Fix a whole network in one sitting
  • Align many trails to activity lines
  • Summer and winter trails
Trailforks bulk trail editor showing every trail in a network on one map

Trail candidates: find missing trails New

Trailforks scans the activity recordings in your region for places people travel where no trail is mapped, and lists each one as a candidate on a map. Review it, merge pieces into one line, set the name, difficulty, direction and visibility, and approve it as a new trail.

  • Approve, reject, ignore or merge
  • Suggested difficulty & direction
  • OSM overlay and hidden-trail hints
  • Weekly digest email to region admins
Trail candidates review map listing unmapped trails detected from activity recordings

Bulk edits

Update a whole region's trails from one table instead of opening them one by one. Tick activity types, set difficulty, primary map style, e-bike class, winter use, surface type and freeride style for every trail at once.

  • Bulk edit trail activity types & attributes
  • Bulk closures: hidden, archived or planned
  • Bulk trail status reports
  • Bulk import from OpenStreetMap, merge & move trails
Bulk edit trail activity types table with a column of checkboxes for each activity type

Ride start point heatmap

See where people start their activities in your region, sampled from thousands of recorded activities. The hot spots are the parking lots, trailheads and access points riders actually use, which makes it a fast way to find parking and trailhead POIs that still need to be mapped.

  • Find unmapped parking lots & trailheads
  • Filter by date range
  • Unique users or all activities
Ride starting point heatmap for Squamish showing where activities begin

Region admin panel

One dashboard for pending content, revisions, abuse reports, trails to clean up and region stats.

Moderation & visibility

Approve or reject new content and edits, revert revisions, and set trails public, location hidden or hidden.

Import from OpenStreetMap

Select OpenStreetMap ways on a map and import them as Trailforks trails in one step.

Merge, split & move

Merge several trails into one, split a trail into sections, or draw a polygon to move trails to the right region.

Trail data spreadsheet export

Every trail in a region with its attributes in one sortable table, ready to export as CSV for audits, grant applications and GIS.

Land owner polygons

Show who manages the land so riders know whose rules apply and who to thank.

Permissions & teams

Give your crew exactly the rights they need: add, edit, delete, hidden trails, report approval, downloads or user management.

Official trail reporters

Mark trusted members as official reporters so their trail status updates carry the association's weight.

Routing checker

See the routing network of trails and roads for your region, and find gaps and broken connections that stop the route planner from routing through.

Trail usage statistics

Anonymized counts of how often each trail is completed, built from recorded activities. Show councils, land managers and funders how popular the network is, and plan maintenance where riders actually go.

  • Trail usage and activity log stats
  • Trail work summary with volunteer hours, CSV export
  • Region page view stats
  • Trail supporters & Trail Karma funding
Trail usage statistics for a region showing how often each trail is completed
Keep the map honest

Data quality checks

Automatic checks surface the trails that need attention, so admins fix problems before riders find them.

Trails with possible wrong direction

Trailforks compares each trail's direction with the direction of the activities recorded on it. Trails where the split does not match, such as a “downhill only” trail that is ridden both ways, are listed for review.

  • Recorded direction split shown for each trail
  • Change the direction right from the list
  • Ignore trails that are correct
List of trails flagged with a possibly wrong direction, showing the recorded direction split and a direction picker

Activity type suggestions

A monthly scan of activity logs finds trails used for activities they are not tagged for, like an old mountain bike trail that is now ridden on e-bikes or used by trail runners. Review the suggestions on a map and add the activity type to the selected trails in one step.

  • Trails with more than 20 recorded activities
  • Toggle trails on the map or in the list
  • Region summary across nearby regions
Trail activity type suggester showing trails where e-bike activities were recorded, ready to bulk add the activity type

Drawn far from activity lines

Trails whose line sits away from where people actually record, ready to align in the editor.

Self-crossing trails

Tracks that loop back over themselves, usually a messy GPS upload.

Possible duplicates

Two trails covering the same ground, found by overlapping geometry.

Possible wrong region

Trails filed under a region they are not in.

Difficulty votes

Compare the official rating with what riders vote, and see where they disagree.

Partial activity matches

Trails that activity logs only partly match, often a sign the line is off or a section is missing.

Unsnapped endpoints

Trail ends that stop short of the trail they should join, highlighted in the bulk editor.

Find photos & videos

Match geotagged photos and videos to the trails they were taken on.

Every data cleanup tool in the region admin panel

Region admins get all of these from the Admin tab of their region, free.

Data cleanup

  • Trails that cross themselves
  • Possible duplicate trails (two checks) & find duplicate trails
  • Trails with a possible wrong region
  • Trails drawn far from their activity lines
  • Find missing trails (trail candidates)
  • Trails with possible wrong direction
  • Review trails' voted difficulty
  • Top partially matched activity log trails
  • Review the sub-region hierarchy
  • Sync the difficulty system to child regions
  • Find photos & videos matching trails
  • Snap trails for routing topology & the routing checker
  • Sync trails' trail association relations
  • Recalculate region stats

Bulk data editing

  • Bulk trail editor
  • Bulk edit trail activity types
  • Bulk trail closures: hidden, archived, planned
  • Bulk trail reports
  • Bulk import trails from OpenStreetMap
  • Merge trails
  • Select trails on the map to move
  • Activity type suggestions

Reports, exports & logs

  • Trail data spreadsheet export
  • Trail work summary & export
  • Print map tool
  • Ride start point heatmap
  • Scheduled reports
  • Deleted & rejected content
  • Admin notes
  • Contribute activity, audit, voting & download logs
Like a wiki, with local moderators

Review, history & trust

Trailforks is a mix of crowd-sourcing and moderation, built with local trail associations in mind. Users earn points for approved content and build a trust score that speeds up approval of their next edit.

  • Revisions — every edit is saved, compared side by side and can be reverted
  • Confirm voting — the community votes new content in, where the region allows it
  • Contributors — see who mapped and updated each trail and region
  • Audit log — a full record of admin actions
  • Trail difficulty & tag voting — ratings the community agrees on
  • Sensitive trails — public, location hidden or hidden, decided locally
Trailforks region admin panel with pending content, revisions and trails to clean up
Your data, everywhere

Export & share

Trail data is only useful if people can use it. Take it to print, to GIS software, or to your own website.

Exports are for personal use and non-profit trail advocacy, such as a trail association's own maps, signs, grant applications and website. Credit Trailforks wherever the data is used. See the data use policy.

  • Trail downloads — KML, GPX, OSM, GeoJSON and Shapefile for a region
  • POI downloads — KML, OSM, Shapefile and CSV
  • Print maps — high resolution PNG, GeoTIFF or vector PDF for signs, posters and handouts
  • Trail data spreadsheet export — every trail in a region and its attributes in one table, with CSV export
  • Widgets — embed maps, trail lists, status and reports on your website
  • API — JSON access for apps and partners
  • QR codes — link trail signs straight to the trail page
  • Garmin — Trailforks trails on Garmin maps and devices
Trailforks print map tool exporting a high resolution trail map
Permissions at a glance

Who can use what

Most mapping tools are free. Region tools are granted to the local association by Trailforks, and they can share them with their team.

ToolContributorRegion admin
Add & edit trails, POIs, polygons, routesYesYes
Upload GPX / KML / KMZ / TCX, draw, crop from activityYesYes
Activity recordings in the trail editorYesYes
Trail reports & difficulty votesYesYes
Bulk trail import (KML)Trusted usersYes
Print mapsPro or active contributorsYes
Approve, reject & revert contentConfirm votingYes
Hidden & location hidden trails–Yes
Bulk trail editor–Yes
Trail candidates review–Yes
Bulk edits & activity type suggestions–Yes
Data cleanup tools & direction flags–Yes
Import from OSM, merge, split, move–Yes
Trail usage statisticsProYes
Region data downloadsWhen the region allowsYes
Team permissions & official reporters–Yes

Trail mapping FAQ

Who can add or edit trails on Trailforks?

Anyone with a free Trailforks account can add trails, points of interest, polygons, routes and trail reports, or suggest edits to existing content. Edits are saved as revisions and reviewed by the local trail association or by other users, like a wiki.

Can I upload a GPX file to create a trail?

Yes. The trail editor accepts GPX, KML, KMZ and TCX files. You can also draw a trail by hand, paint it from the activity heatmap, or crop it from one of your own recorded activity logs. Trailforks snaps the ends to connecting trails automatically.

What is the activity heatmap and how does it help mapping?

The heatmap shows the GPS lines of anonymized activities recorded by Trailforks users. Only public activities are included, and the lines are colour-coded by activity type. Inside the trail editor every contributor can see these activity recordings, so a trail can be drawn on the line people actually ride, run or hike, and an existing trail can be aligned to it with one key press.

How do trail associations manage their trails on Trailforks?

Trail associations get region admin permissions for their area. They approve or reject new content and edits, control trail visibility, post official trail status reports, bulk edit trails on one map, review missing-trail candidates, see trail usage statistics and export their trail data. All association tools are free.

How does Trailforks find trails that are missing from the map?

Trail candidates are detected from where people record activities but no trail is mapped yet. Region admins review each candidate on a map, can merge pieces together, set the name, difficulty and direction, and approve it as a new trail in a few clicks. The OSM Missing Trails layer also highlights OpenStreetMap paths that are not on Trailforks yet.

Can I export trail data from Trailforks?

Region trail data can be downloaded as KML, GPX, OSM, GeoJSON and Shapefile, and points of interest as KML, OSM, Shapefile and CSV, when the region allows downloads or you have download permission. Print maps can be exported as PNG, GeoTIFF or vector PDF, and the Trailforks API and widgets put the data on your own website. Exports are for personal use and non-profit trail advocacy, such as a trail association's own maps, signs and website, and must credit Trailforks.

Are hidden or sensitive trails protected?

Yes. Trails have three visibility levels, public, location hidden and hidden, and only region admins can change them. Hidden trails stay in the database so the local association keeps a complete inventory without publishing it.

Help map the trails you love

Add a missing trail, fix a line, or bring your trail association on board. Every contribution makes the map better for everyone.

Start Contributing Association? Contact us

Why contribute: Trailforks for trail associations · Mapping standards & policies

More features: Route Planner · Trail Reporting · Activity Logs · Race Courses · All Features