Trail Etiquette and Right of Way: The Unwritten Rules That Keep Trails Open

Trail etiquette is not about manners for their own sake. Shared trails stay open because the people using them do not collide, do not damage the route and do not give the managing agency a reason to close it. Most of the conventions below are common across the country, but individual parks and trail systems post their own rules, and where they differ, the local rule wins. Confirm the rules with the managing agency before you go, because they change.

The first rule of right of way is that the vehicle going uphill has it. A vehicle climbing a grade needs momentum and a clean line, and stopping it on a loose slope may mean it cannot restart without sliding. A vehicle coming down can stop and hold more easily. When you see someone climbing toward you, find a place to pull over before you meet and let them through. The exception is where there is a wide spot only on the uphill side, in which case use common sense and a hand signal.

Between different kinds of users, the convention is that motorized vehicles yield to everyone else. Horses have priority over all other traffic, and a horse is a large frightened animal, so switch off the engine, remove your helmet if you can so you look human, and speak calmly until the rider waves you on. Hikers and mountain bikers come next. Among motorized users, the larger and less nimble vehicle usually gives way to the smaller one, so a truck pulls over for a dirt bike where it can.

Meeting oncoming vehicles is where hand signals matter. The leader of a group holds up a number of fingers to show how many vehicles are following. The last vehicle holds up a closed fist to say the group is complete. It takes a moment to learn and it prevents the situation where you pull back onto a narrow trail after four vehicles pass and meet a fifth. If you are alone, hold up a fist as you pass so the other party knows nobody is behind you.

Passing from behind should be a negotiation, not a surprise. A faster vehicle behind waits for the slower one to notice and find a place to pull aside. The slower vehicle should look for that place rather than pretending not to see. On a dune or open desert there is room to go around at a distance; on a two-track there is not, and driving off the track to pass widens it and is the kind of damage that gets areas closed. Wait.

Dust is a courtesy issue that becomes a safety one. Slow down when you pass a stopped vehicle, a campsite or another group, because the dust you raise ends up in their lungs and their coolers and, at speed, in the eyes of the next driver behind you. Keep a gap on dusty trails so you can see the route and so the vehicle in front can see you. Riding in someone's dust for miles is a good way to hit the obstacle they just went around.

Stay on the trail. This is the rule that everything else exists to protect. Do not cut a switchback, do not drive around a mud hole and make the trail wider, do not take a shortcut over a meadow because it is there. Wet trails are especially vulnerable, and many Midwest and Appalachian systems close for the spring thaw for exactly this reason. If a route is closed, it is closed, and the fact that a gate is open does not mean the trail beyond it is. Tread Lightly publishes principles on this; see treadlightly.org.

Gates get left as you found them. An open gate stays open; a closed gate is closed again behind the last vehicle in the group. This matters enormously on grazing land, where a gate left open can mean livestock on a highway. Similarly, a locked gate is not an invitation to find a way around it. If a trail crosses private land with permission, that permission depends on every user behaving as though it could be withdrawn, because it can.

Stop for anyone who is stopped. A vehicle pulled over on a trail may be taking a break or may be broken down, and it costs nothing to slow down and ask. The reciprocal rule is that if you are stopped and fine, wave people through so they do not have to. If you are broken, be honest about what you need, and if you are the one helping, remember that a recovery done badly injures people, so take it slowly and use rated gear.

Noise, speed near camps and trash finish the list. Keep speed down near campsites, trailheads and anywhere children and dogs might be, and remember that an exhaust that sounds fine to you in the driver's seat is very loud to someone in a tent. Take out everything you brought in, including the zip ties and the bits of belt that come off a machine on the trail. Pick up what the last group left too. A trail with no evidence of the people using it is a trail nobody has a reason to close.

None of this is law, except where a park has posted it, but all of it is expected, and the people who ride a trail regularly notice who ignores it. Public land agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service decide which routes stay open partly on how users behave, and the users who behave well are the ones who keep the map from shrinking.