Scrub Hub: How are Indiana state park hiking trails designed?

Hoosiers can enjoy about 800 miles of trails in Indiana’s state parks ranging from hard surface asphalt to dirt paths.

What a great way to burn off some of those holiday calories.

Some trails take hikers through casual strolls along creeks, while others are a bit more challenging and require ladders to dip through ravines (looking at you Shades). The vistas are vast, and the directions are diverse, but what is behind mapping out these outdoor paths?

For this edition of ScrubHub, we wanted to find out how paths are planned, built and maintained, so we reached out to DNR experts to answer: How are hiking trails designed within some Indiana state parks?

Short answer: Different types of trails require different designs

Indiana’s state parks offer trail options for a variety of users from hikers and bikers to horses and mobility devices, and different state parks and preserves around Indiana may use different ways to design trails.

Ginger Murphy, deputy director of the division of state parks at DNR, wrote in an email to IndyStar that the hard surface trails that allow a wide range of accessibility are generally made from asphalt or concrete.

“These are designed using architects and engineers to ensure that routes make sense and that materials used are durable and appropriate for the site, budget, and landscape,” Murphy wrote.

Horses aren’t allowed on every trail in state parks, but those that exist are usually made of natural earth with portions of gravel. These trails have bee around for a long time and DNR will sometimes plan reroutes and other maintenance typically with the help of volunteers who use the equestrian trails.

The footpaths and mountain bike trails are also made of soil and portions of gravel, Murphy wrote. Many of these path routes and designs are from the users of the parks and created in the early life of the individual parks, or routes that property managers would mark and create.

“Some of those trails were created to take hikers to popular overlooks, scenic locations or historical features at the property,” Murphy wrote. “Those trails may or may not have been originally established with the idea of sustainability and heavy use in mind.”

Long answer: Sustainability and maintenance are priorities of trails in state parks

DNR property staff at parks now work with landscape architects to chose enjoyable routes that also consider the impact on natural and historic resources, accessibility, soil types and rainfall runoff.

Trails are also designed with different structures such as bridges and staircases to protect those resources, Murphy wrote.

The more modern mountain biking trails also take these protections into consideration, and the state park staff works with different mountain biking groups across Indiana to design, build the trails to make them sustainable and easier to maintain over time.

Throughout the state park trail systems, visitors will find trail numbers or names on 4”x4” wooden posts. This is a traditional method for marking out trails since they are durable as well as recognizable.

“In some locations where installing wooden posts is challenging because of a rocky substrate or on trails that are several miles, we are using brown Carsonite signs,” Murphy wrote. “These are much lighter weight for moving long distances, and can have labels that indicate routes.”

As trails intersect each other, the parks will use what DNR calls confidence markers to help visitors gain their bearings in relation to other trails and the facilities at each park.

To avoid getting lost, state parks have printed trail maps that can be found at the entrance gates or printed online at www.in.gov/dnr/state-parks/maps. These show everything from the trail routes, difficulty of the hike and how many miles each trail travels.

If you’re a planner, DNR also offers an online tool, Indiana Trail Finder, that complies data from state parks, DNR properties and even city and county parks. All of these resources can be found on DNR’s new smartphone app.

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With all the trails planned, designed, built and marked, the only consideration left is how to maintain the systems to keep them usable for visitors.

One of the more costly elements of trail work, Murphy said, involves monitoring and repairing or replacing bridges and staircases.

DNR has more than $10 million invested into these trail structures throughout the parks and state-managed properties. Sometimes sections of trails need to be rerouted when they’re deemed unsustainable. This might happen if a path runs straight down a hill where erosion happens after rainfall, or where overuse or other damage to natural and historic resources occurs.

“We also keep an eye on dead and dying trees along trails for safety purposes, balancing the need for removal of those trees with the need for snags to benefit wildlife species such as bats and cavity-nesting birds,” Murphy wrote.

Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @karlstartswithk

IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Scrub Hub: How are hiking trails designed for Hoosiers?