Trail Experience You Can Trust

Over the past 90 years, New York-New Jersey Trail Conference volunteers have helped to build and maintain what we think is the finest network of foot trails in a major metropolitan area in our nation. More than 1700 miles of trails now provide the region's residents and visitors access to parklands and open space. And the trail system continues to grow.

We've come a long way since October 19, 1920, when representatives of several New York-area hiking clubs sat down with the first general manager of the fledgling Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC) to talk about creating a system of marked trails for the public to enjoy at the then brand-new Harriman State Park.

That meeting led to the creation of the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. The new organization immediately set to work.

In just a few months, by the spring of 1921, Trail Conference members could proudly point to the newly built 24-mile Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail. It remains one of the most popular trails in the park today.

A year later, the Trail Conference enthusiastically got behind Benton MacKaye's proposal to build a trail along the Appalachian mountain chain as a refuge from "the shackles of commercial civilization." By early 1924, Trail Conference volunteers had built 20 miles of Appalachian Trail across Harriman and Bear Mountain parks. By 1930, they had completed all 160 miles from the Delaware Water Gap to Connecticut.

Those early Trail Conference volunteers were ambitious, hard-working people, and they left us a rich legacy that we proudly build on 90 years later:

• an extensive trail network that we maintain, add to, and promote each year;
• an ethic of trail volunteerism and civic engagement in conservation issues;
• a model of partnering with public agencies to get trail work done and lands opened up for public enjoyment.

Today,

• the Trail Conference is supported by 10,000 individual members and 100 member clubs representing 100,000 trail users;

• more than 1,600 people from across 20 counties in two states annually volunteer for trails;
• these volunteers create, maintain, and protect 1700 miles of trails and 38 shelters;
• they produce the maps (10), books (9), and web publications that help guide the public onto trails and open space throughout our region.

In 2010, as in 1920 and many years in between, park managers find their resources are stretched thin. Trail Conference volunteer-power and resources are at work, as they have been for 90 years, helping to fill the gaps and protect our beloved parks.

You can be part of this proud tradition.

Join the Trail Conference. Volunteer for trails. Donate now to support our work.

We will be celebrating our 90th birthday at events throughout the year. Stay tuned for details.

If you would like to read more about Trail Conference history, click here to view or download an account written on the occasion of our 75th anniversary.