Statewide trail directory
Discover Virginia running paths, greenways, trail runs, day hikes, and long-distance routes by area, distance, terrain, difficulty, and experience.
29 routes across 12 Virginia regions · 9 Appalachian Trail sections · every entry linked to its managing agency
Boardwalks, greenways, and flat waterfront loops built for daily running and walking.
Browse running pathsBlue Ridge summits, waterfall hollows, and ridgeline traverses with honest difficulty notes.
Browse hikesVirginia's 550 AT miles, broken into sections with shelters, resupply, and access details.
Open the AT guideEach of these opens the directory already filtered — adjust anything from there.
Every catalogued trailhead, from the Eastern Shore to the Cumberland Plateau. Open the full map to filter by distance, surface, difficulty, and access.
Prefer a list? Browse all 29 routes alphabetically.
Hand-picked entries that show the range of Virginia walking, running, and hiking — from oceanfront boardwalk to Blue Ridge rock.
Running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A continuous three-mile oceanfront promenade with a separate paved bike path — Virginia's most-used running surface.
Surface: Paved
Trail running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A wide crushed-shell and paved multi-use route through First Landing State Park's maritime forest.
Surface: Crushed stone, Sand, Paved
Trail running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
Roughly 20 miles of interconnected maritime forest, dune, and swamp trails on the Chesapeake Bay.
Surface: Sand, Dirt, Boardwalk
Running
Newport News · Coastal Virginia & Hampton Roads
A wooded five-mile loop around Lake Maury with fourteen bridges — Newport News' signature run.
Surface: Crushed stone, Dirt
Running
Arlington to Purcellville · Northern Virginia
A 45-mile paved rail-trail from Shirlington to Purcellville — Northern Virginia's main artery.
Surface: Paved, Gravel
Running
Arlington to Mount Vernon · Northern Virginia
Eighteen paved miles along the Potomac from Theodore Roosevelt Island to Mount Vernon.
Surface: Paved, Boardwalk
Paved greenways, boardwalk miles, rail-trails, and the trail runs that make good tempo days.
Running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A continuous three-mile oceanfront promenade with a separate paved bike path — Virginia's most-used running surface.
Surface: Paved
Trail running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A wide crushed-shell and paved multi-use route through First Landing State Park's maritime forest.
Surface: Crushed stone, Sand, Paved
Trail running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
Roughly 20 miles of interconnected maritime forest, dune, and swamp trails on the Chesapeake Bay.
Surface: Sand, Dirt, Boardwalk
Summits, waterfalls, and ridgelines, with difficulty explained rather than reduced to a single word.
Hiking
Etlan · Shenandoah National Park
Virginia's most famous hike: a long approach, a genuine rock scramble, and a 360-degree summit.
Surface: Rocky, Dirt
Hiking
Syria · Shenandoah National Park
A steep canyon of stacked waterfalls, hikeable as a short upper visit or a long full descent.
Surface: Rocky, Dirt
Hiking
Luray · Shenandoah National Park
The best view-per-effort hike in Shenandoah: a short, gentle climb to a cliff-top panorama.
Surface: Rocky, Dirt
The long trail
Roughly 550 miles, from Damascus in the southwest to Harpers Ferry. Our guide breaks it into 9 hikeable sections with road access, shelters, water, resupply towns, permits, and the terrain that actually slows people down.
Virginia changes character every hour you drive west. Start with the landscape you want.
Flat, fast waterfront miles across Norfolk, Newport News, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk.
3 routes indexed
Boardwalk miles, maritime forest singletrack, and one of the flattest running cities in the state.
6 routes indexed
The densest paved-trail network in the state, plus Potomac river corridors and suburban lake loops.
3 routes indexed
Valley floor greenways, river access, and the western approaches to the Blue Ridge.
0 routes indexed
Over 500 miles of trail along Skyline Drive — waterfalls, rock scrambles, and classic Blue Ridge summits.
4 routes indexed
Urban whitewater, island singletrack, and the 50-mile Virginia Capital Trail.
3 routes indexed
Three collections built from recorded attributes, not guesswork. Where a detail has not been confirmed, the entry says so.
Running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A continuous three-mile oceanfront promenade with a separate paved bike path — Virginia's most-used running surface.
Surface: Paved
Trail running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A wide crushed-shell and paved multi-use route through First Landing State Park's maritime forest.
Surface: Crushed stone, Sand, Paved
Walking
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A short interpretive loop through blackwater swamp on boardwalk and soft forest floor.
Surface: Boardwalk, Dirt, Sand
Running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A continuous three-mile oceanfront promenade with a separate paved bike path — Virginia's most-used running surface.
Surface: Paved
Trail running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A wide crushed-shell and paved multi-use route through First Landing State Park's maritime forest.
Surface: Crushed stone, Sand, Paved
Walking
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A short interpretive loop through blackwater swamp on boardwalk and soft forest floor.
Surface: Boardwalk, Dirt, Sand
Running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A continuous three-mile oceanfront promenade with a separate paved bike path — Virginia's most-used running surface.
Surface: Paved
Trail running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A wide crushed-shell and paved multi-use route through First Landing State Park's maritime forest.
Surface: Crushed stone, Sand, Paved
Running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
Paved lakeside loops with the only meaningful hill repeats in central Virginia Beach.
Surface: Paved
Heat, ice, storms, water availability, foliage crowds, hunting seasons, and road closures all move the answer to 'where should I go this weekend'.
December – February
Skyline Drive and sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway close for ice and snow, cutting off many trailheads.
March – April
High water at stream crossings after snowmelt and rain.
May – early June
Rhododendron and mountain laurel bloom, peaking in June at elevation.
Mid-June – August
High humidity limits cooling; effort feels much harder than the pace suggests.
September – November
Foliage peaks at high elevation in early to mid October and later in the valleys.
Checklists for a short run, a day hike, a weekend section, and a thru-hike, plus the topics that actually cause problems in Virginia: water treatment, navigation without cell service, heat and humidity, cold rain, blisters, hiking with kids, and hiking with dogs.
Calm, source-backed guidance on the species that change how you plan a trip — black bears and food storage, venomous snakes, and the tick prevention that matters more than either.
Every entry links to the managing agency. These were the most recently checked against their official source.
Running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A continuous three-mile oceanfront promenade with a separate paved bike path — Virginia's most-used running surface.
Surface: Paved
Trail running
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A wide crushed-shell and paved multi-use route through First Landing State Park's maritime forest.
Surface: Crushed stone, Sand, Paved
Walking
Virginia Beach · Virginia Beach
A short interpretive loop through blackwater swamp on boardwalk and soft forest floor.
Surface: Boardwalk, Dirt, Sand
Distances, difficulty, and access details come from the agency that manages each trail — the National Park Service, US Forest Service, Virginia State Parks, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and local parks departments. Where a value has not been confirmed, the directory says so rather than guessing.
Virginia Trailfinder currently includes verified starter coverage across Virginia, with additional trails added as source review is completed.
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