Swamp Trail scenery, Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial
Nearly everyone who comes to Theodore Roosevelt Island comes to hike the trails. Though limited, the island does offer a nature retreat for those from the Washington, D. C., area. There are three original trails, all part of the Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. landscape plan, plus short connectors that lead to the Roosevelt Memorial and allow hikers to cut from one trail to the other. There are also numerous “social” trails in the park, which are trails blazed over the years by visitors who don’t stick to the official trails. The interior of the island is a hodgepodge of such trails, and these often make hiking at Theodore Roosevelt Island a little confusing, for none of these are on the trail map. However, the island is small, so other than possibly getting on the wrong trail and messing up your planned route, you can’t stay lost forever. You’ll either end up running into the Potomac River or crossing paths with one of the original wide, gravel trails. I never did make a wrong turn when hiking on the island, but I rarely felt that I knew where I was.
The trails can be combined in many ways, so there are no set-in-stone routes. However, to make some sense of the terrain, I made two hikes within the park. The longest possible hike using a single trail is a hike around the island’s perimeter on the Swamp Trail, and even it is only 1.5 miles long. My second hike combines the Woods Trail in its entirety and a portion of the Upland Trail that runs south of the Roosevelt Memorial. These two trails form a loop hike of a little less than a mile. See the following trail reviews for details.
Woods Trail + Upland Trail Loop Hike
With a few exceptions, use of any photograph on the National Park Planner website requires a paid Royalty Free Editorial Use License or Commercial Use License. See the Photo Usage page for details.
Last updated on January 13, 2022
