Hiking and biking trails at Petersburg National Battlefield

Both the Eastern Front and Five Forks Battlefield units of Petersburg National Battlefield have trails that are open to both hikers and bikers. Most also allow horseback riding. There are no trails in the Western Front unit.

When on the trails, look for the blazes (paint splotches on trees) to determine the type of trail. Yellow-blazed trails are open to hikers, bikers, and horseback riders. Red-blazed trails are for hikers and bikers only. Blazes are also used for navigation—follow them like Hansel and Gretel breadcrumbs—but the trails at Petersburg National Battlefield are pretty well marked with directional signage, so rarely do you have to rely on blazes to find your way around.

Red-blazed trail at Petersburg National Battlefield

In regards to bikes, the earthen trails are for off-road bikes, not road bikes. There is plenty of loose gravel on the trails and even some sand in spots. For those interested in road biking, the road through the Eastern Front unit of the park is four miles long and has a lane reserved for roadside parking and bikes. Parking spaces are marked off at tour stops, trailheads, and other points of interest, but the lane serves as a typical bike lane on the rest of the road. There is no protective barrier between the vehicle and bike lanes, but the road is one-way, traffic is light, and most cars drive pretty slowly. The roads in the other park units are city roads with higher speed limits and almost no road shoulders. If your life is worth more than a bike ride, I suggest staying off them.

Typical earthen trail at Petersburg National Battlefield

Before setting out on the trails, be sure to get a copy of the trail maps. Printed maps are available at the Eastern Front Visitor Center, but they are in black and white and very hard to read (not to mention black and white negates the color coding for the trail types). The color maps, which are only available in electronic format, are the ones you want. Cell service is good at the park, so you should have no problem accessing the electronic versions while on the trails. Better yet, download them to your phone or home computer ahead of time. Also, the Eastern Front trail map given out at the Visitor Center is not 100% accurate. I have made corrections to the map provided below.

Eastern Front Trail Map (click to enlarge)

Five Forks Battlefield Trail Map (click to download a PDF of the map)

All trails at Petersburg National Battlefield are for exercise purposes only. Other than passing through some of the stops on the battlefield tours, the trails do not lead to monuments, forts, memorials, or anything else of historical interest that you can’t get to in a vehicle. They are just walks in the woods, or in the sunshine at some points.

While the trails do have names, there is no trail that anyone would set out to hike on its own. For the most part, they are just a network of paths that crisscross the battlefield, allowing hikers, bikers, and horseback riders to piece together a route to suit their own needs. I hiked most of the trails in the park and have provided some basic information along with photos to help you pick the ones you’d like to incorporate into your own route. These reviews pertain to everyone: hikers, bikers, and horseback riders. See the following web pages for a list of trails in each unit of the park:

Eastern Front Trails

Five Forks Battlefield Trails

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