Trails

This page is a growing resource on accessible trails in Massachusetts and beyond. Please email info@accessrecboston if you have any additions!

Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR)

There are many different types of accessible trails in Massachusetts state parks. Any rail trail offers you a paved, level experience for access to natural areas and exercise. Several parks also offer accessibly-designed hiking trails in scenic, natural settings. These accessible trails are either paved or made from stone dust and are usually under a mile long.

For  list of trails, visit www.mass.gov/service-details/accessible-trails.

Mass Audubon

Mass Audubon is over halfway to its goal of creating twenty multi-sensory, ADA accessible trails! Find a trail near you: http://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/accessibility

  • Audio tours
  • Brailled texts and tactile maps
  • Tour scripts and maps designed for high readability for visually impaired and sighted visitors
  • New orientation maps and information panels
  • Improved signage along trails
  • Rope/post guiding systems
  • Wider boardwalks

Also, check out the new Accessible Trails Manual, a comprehensive guidelines manual for developing and sustaining an accessible interpreted trail. The manual provides ideas for collaborative partnerships, developing and testing trail materials with volunteer expert users and resource professionals, and outreach. Get your copy here.

Crotched Mountain

As the longest accessible trail in a mountainside environment in the United States, Crotched Mountain’s Accessible Trails in New Hampshire are not to be missed!

With over 1,200 acres of permanently protected forest, open fields of wild blueberry and heather, and mysterious wetlands, Crotched Mountain is a place of unusual beauty. Memories of hiking these woods to reach the summit, gazing at the sunset, or listening to the chatter of birds in an active wetland can last a lifetime. Crotched Mountain’s accessible trails provide a place where everyone – people with disabilities, seniors and families with children – are welcomed and able to experience nature up close.