Cross Vt Trail 101:

• The character of the trail.
• Signs; find the route.
• What is a Cue Sheet?
• Trail Etiquette.
• Road Rules.

The Big Picture:

• Our vision for the trail.

It is a patchwork quilt being stitched together from many local paths. Maps, guide descriptions, and signs will help you find the open sections of trail, and highlight the best roads to connect them together and make longer trips.

Navigate the route by combining signs with maps, cue sheets, and written guide material. There are hundreds of signs statewide, but also long stretches between them. It may be difficult to follow the route using signs as the only source of information. Learn more.

Statewide at a glance.
The entire route summarized on one piece of paper. (PDF 832KB)

Section Maps Twelve maps cover the complete statewide route.

• Index of the twelve separate Cross Vermont Trail maps.
• Download all of the printable maps in one large file. (PDF 3MB)

Interactive Digital Maps view online or download.

• View the trail online in Google Maps.
• Or at official Vermont TrailFinder.info full route and many side trails.

Cue Sheets are brief, turn by turn directions. (Learn more about cue sheets here.) Cue sheets accompany each printable map.

Temporary Route Notices ~ storm damage, road construction, you name it. Check here for updates on temporary changes or impacts to plan around along the Cross Vermont Trail route. Use this information in addition to the information in our maps and cue sheets.

In depth description, including photos. Additional detail about parking areas and points of interest. Tips on how to navigate potentially confusing turns and intersections. Also links to other websites that relate to the Cross Vermont Trail. The description is complete, but we are always working to add to it, so let us know what you would like to see included! Read narrative description online.

Look beneath the surface. Learn more about the rivers that form the heart of the statewide route, the landscape around it, and the people who have lived here.

• Nature and history guide + route maps and cue sheets. (PDF 13MB)
• Download just the nature and history guide in large format pages. (PDF 14MB)

The guide is written in part by local middle and high school students. We'd like to work with more classes to continue to improve and expand it.

"Mouth of the Winooski River" Loop. Visit a string of parks and trails along the Winooski River between Williston and Burlington. Leads to "mouth of the river" where the Winooski ends at shores of Lake Champlain.

"Wells River Village" Loop. Make a day trip out of scenic country roads around Village of Wells River, including the Bayley-Hazen Road of Revolutionary War fame. Unexpected history of this road, and further trips to explore, described in the Bayley-Hazen brochure. (PDF 402KB)

Wells River Nature Area brochure. (PDF 481KB; prints out on legal size paper.)

The Pine Mountain Wildlife Management Area (PDF 235KB; prints out on letter size paper.) can be accessed from the Cross Vermont Trail at a gateway parking area on the Groton-Ryegate town line.

Groton State Forest day trip brochure. (PDF 697KB; prints out on legal size paper.) Focuses on the area along the Cross Vermont Trail between Marshfield Village and Groton Village, including Groton State Forest. (Summarizes Maps 2 and 3 of the statewide route.)

Cold Brook Path, in Marshfield (at "the old sandpit", up the hill from Twinfield School).

CVTA is interested in creating a new brochure for trails and healthy outdoor exercise opportunities in the Plainfield area. Stay tuned, or give us a call if interested in helping with this project.

East Montpelier Trails brochure. (PDF 316KB; prints out on letter size paper.)

Map of trails in Montpelier City parks. (PDF 344KB; prints out on letter size paper.)

The Green Mountain Byway "Stowe and Waterbury Recreation Guide" is a very nicely done, and free, map of trails in those two towns. Not available digitally, it seems. Look for it as a handout at local businesses.

In Bolton, junction with the Honey Hollow Trail, which creates a 7-mile mountain bike and XC ski loop with the Catamount Trail. We also overlap with the route of the Long Trail on a town dirt road along the banks of the Winooski. These trails give access to the 20,000 acre Camels Hump State Park and forest reserve (GIF 71KB.).

Richmond Trails brochure. (PDF 5 MB; prints out on legal size paper.)

Winooski Valley Park District map. (PDF 342KB; prints out on 11x17 size paper.)

Explore natural areas and trails throughout the Burlington area with Burlington Wildways online maps. And Local Motion publishes a walk/bike map for street routes and paved bike paths in the Burlington area - download the PDF here.

There are several campgrounds along the route of the trail - some state parks and some private businesses. CVTA does not endorse any one in particular, but here is some advice we are passing along from past trail riders (and drop us a line with any advice you gather from your own trip!)

Many people will divide the trip across the state into three days, spending the night in the Waterbury area and in the Marshfield/Groton State Forest area.

In Waterbury, the State Campground is "Little River." It is a bit of a distance off of the Cross Vt Trail route, west along Route 2 from Waterbury Village.

In Marshfield there is a private campground immediately on the trail route, Onion River Campground. And in Groton State Forest there are three campgrounds with easy trail connections to the Cross Vt Trail - the campgrgounds are named New Discovery, Stillwater and Ricker Pond.

To learn about campgrounds in state parks go to: www.vtstateparks.com.

And for a map and listing of members of the Vermont Campground Association go to: www.campvermont.com.

To the west, Cross Vermont route joins with Lake Champlain Bikeway, over 1,100 miles of mapped bike routes circumnavigating Lake Champlain through Vermont, New York, and Quebec.

To the east, just over the Connecticut River from Wells River, Vermont is the Ammonoosuc Rail-Trail managed by New Hampshire Trails. The highway bridge over the Connecticut River has a separated sidewalk, so it is easy to go over to Woodsville and connect to the trails there.