The Crossing Trail, Prince William Forest Park/NPS

The National Park Service wants to hear from visitors about its proposed plan to improve trail systems and expand trail use at Prince William Forest Park in northern Virginia.

Located in Prince William and Stafford counties, Virginia, Prince William Forest Park is the largest protected natural area in the National Park Service National Capital Region. The park contains approximately 40 miles of public trails and protects more than 14,500 acres of Eastern Piedmont forest and much of the Quantico Creek watershed. In this wooded oasis along Virginia’s I-95 corridor, visitors can explore nature and history from the park’s 8-mile Scenic Drive, trails, campgrounds, picnic areas, and five rustic cabin camps. 

With more than 360,000 annual visitors, Prince William Forest Park is an increasingly popular destination for hiking, biking, camping, and other activities in the Greater Washington area. The National Park Service has proposed a plan to improve the park’s trail systems, while continuing to protect park resources including wildlife, plants, streams, and archaeological sites.

Under the proposed plan the National Park Service would make the following improvements at Prince William Forest Park:

• Create approximately 13 miles of new trails.

• Adjust the routes of more than 29 miles of existing trails to improve trail connectivity and to protect streams, plants, and archaeological sites.  

• Create more than four miles of new trails that are accessible to people with disabilities.

• Increase the number of trail routes suitable for horseback riding and/or mountain biking.

• Improve connections with local and regional trail systems beyond the park.

• Expand parking at trailheads to provide better trail access on the northern and eastern edges of the park.

Public participation is vital to the planning process. The National Park Service developed the proposed Comprehensive Trails Plan and Environmental Assessment with the help of public input received in the spring of 2018. The public is invited to comment on this proposed plan from March 18, 2019 to April 18, 2019. To provide comments online or get additional information, please visit the National Park Service planning website at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/prwitrailplan.

If visitors prefer to mail their comments, they should make sure the comments are postmarked by April 18, 2019 to receive consideration. Mail comments to the following address:

Superintendent

Attn: PRWI Trail Plan

National Park Service

Prince William Forest Park

18100 Park Headquarters Road

Triangle, VA 22172

Please note: Before including an address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in a comment, visitors should be aware that their entire comment - including personal identifying information - may be made publicly available at any time. While visitors can ask the National Park Service in their comment to withhold personal identifying information from public review, they cannot guarantee that they will be able to do so.