National Park Trail Guide Reviews

I spent last summer as an employee in GTNP and can say that this is the singles best app for hiking in the national parks. The map feature is amazing and intuitive, the trail profiles are super helpful, and the trails that have guides are very well written and helpful. Being able to see my location on the map even without service saved me a few times while hiking through the Utah desert. There are a few glitches every now and then, especially when switching between screens or trying to search for a trail, but overall works very well. If only NationalParkTrailGuide worked outside the national parks.

Really like NationalParkTrailGuide! So useful with being able to find hikes offline and seeing where you’re at. The location is pretty darn accurate. I also really like how it tells you the elevation and mileage at various points of the hikes. Also so nice that you can add hikes to your “to do” list and then mark them as complete when you’ve done it!

Some things that would be great to improve/add. One is there may be some glitch with adding “Gems” to your Completed list, it won’t let you for some reason. And it’d be great if the map can overlay the hikes you’ve already done so it’s easy to see where you’ve been, plus just would be super cool to look at

This is my go-to resource when I’m checking out national parks in and what to do in them. NationalParkTrailGuide itself is gorgeous and very user friendly. It makes good use of the beautiful photography of the national parks it has resources on. I really like the sorting of the hikes into those that are the “Best Hikes” to hit the highlights and also “Family Friendly” hikes including giving tips on how to make more difficult hikes easier for kids like turning around after a certain mile marker, etc. I recommend NationalParkTrailGuide to everyone I know, definitely check it out!

This is truly a great app. The maps are spot on and the GPS can work even if you’re in a dead zone (download for offline use!)

This has a lot of hikes and allows you to see the information easily and freely in NationalParkTrailGuide . I downgraded a star though because some of the information contained within NationalParkTrailGuide is outdated, and needs to be updated. Many trails in different parks have been modified or now require tickets to hike them that can only be purchased through the National Park Service website.

For the most updated information please go to the Hiking Project website where most of the information contained here resides.

I’ve never left a review anywhere before, but I had to say that I used NationalParkTrailGuide for all my hikes on a national park road trip and it is so useful, especially in parks due to low/no service and data. The hikes and gems descriptions are so helpful, and I can see the profile, current position on my hike, the grade, etc all within NationalParkTrailGuide with no internet. The my list function is a little finicky, and I wish you could just see a map of only the things you want to do, but NationalParkTrailGuide is still so worth it.

I cannot say enough about how great NationalParkTrailGuide is. I just hiked Grand Canyon rim to rim and used this all along the way. Clearly there is no service in the canyon but NationalParkTrailGuide still worked and showed us all along the way exactly where we were. We were able also to navigate to side hikes and know we were on course. We threw out paper maps and just used my phone for NationalParkTrailGuide. After the Grand Canyon we went to Bryce NP and were sore so not wanting to do big hikes so we just focused on seeing the gems rei suggestions and they were all amazing. Thank you rei for a great app!

I’ve had NationalParkTrailGuide for about a year now, and it’s worked absolutely perfectly! There is one thing though that is annoying, and that’s the inclusion of NPS units that aren’t National Parks. It would be great if there was a way to filter those out, maybe through a main menu screen giving the option to chose from “National Parks” and “All National Park Service Units”. Another thing is that the map for the territory of Virgin Islands National Park does not include the “newly” acquired Hassel island off of St. Thomas. But other than that, NationalParkTrailGuide is phenomenal and deserves a ton more attention!

NationalParkTrailGuide is amazingly useful. I have used it to plan every single one of my trips to a. Atinó al park, including picking camping sites and navigating the trails at the park with no phone signal. It is my go to tool for trip planning. I especially love the altitude info that you can follow along the routes and the photos and ratings of the trails.

Functionality missing that would make NationalParkTrailGuide perfect: ability to list or map all campsites or all parking lots without the need to zoom in on the routes.

NationalParkTrailGuide is fantastic for visiting parks. I’ve used it on several trips now and it makes planning and exploring super easy! Only issue I have with it is that there isn’t a way to delete downloaded content after your trip. So after a while NationalParkTrailGuide had several gigabytes of data downloaded to my phone (hike paths, park info, photos, trail ratings etc.) Being able to download parks for offline use is super handy for when traveling outside of cellular coverage, but we need a way to delete the data when we no longer need it.

Very user friendly! I’m excited to get back out to the parks and try it out. Sometimes park resources don’t boil it down to the few things you really need to see and NationalParkTrailGuide is perfect for that. This is a great app for studying up on a park before visiting in conjunction with other resources. NationalParkTrailGuide isn’t a standalone resource for all of your outdoor needs; you should still use alltrails/guthook and bring paper maps and ask rangers for suggestions, but what a great additional resource this is!

I have 50+ apps on my iPhone and this is one of the top ones. I wish more apps did this — all content is available offline and combined with GPS location services, you can easily navigate your progress on one of our NP trails while you hike. That’s really important because usually you can’t get cellular data service while hiking in the wilderness.

We’ve been using it in Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks and it’s been more helpful than the NPS hard copy maps! Thanks REI, GREAT work!

I would rate as 5-stars because I love NationalParkTrailGuide except there is now no content on the iPhone version. I can find parks and content on my iPad version, but there is nothing on my iPhone! What happened? I’m not going to take my iPad with me on a hike.

My mistake! I deleted the iPhone app and re-installed it and the content is back. I’ve changed my rating from 3- to 5-stars. Thanks for this great app!

Using it right now on our family trip to Mammoth Cave National Park. In general I’ve not gotten any decent cell service when hiking here or elsewhere in general. I guess they can’t put cell tower in the middle of the national park, lol.

NationalParkTrailGuide uses your phones gps on preloaded maps and was spot on accurate. It’s great to be able to see how far out you are or if you followed the right path etc.

There is no list of parks anywhere to be found!
I did find a way to get to the map, but the map does not show anything other than the name of the parks. You can see the geography And the town’s but there’s no indication of trails or park features anywhere . Pretty much useless!

Well, after 4 months I get a response to my review. And it looks like some people have been waiting since January and February. At this point it looks like they rebuilt the entire app. Their solution was to delete and reinstall. Their updates did absolutely no good. I can’t say that I am encouraged by their lack of communication. I will not be giving them any more stars.

I really appreciate that REI put this out and offers offline maps with gps tracking throughout the national parks for free. I almost bought all trails for $30 because I was worried about a snow covered trail in Yosemite but REI tracked me perfectly, recognized every step, never lagged, and even tracked when I turned left and right in real time. I was able to follow where the trail should be underneath the snow using NationalParkTrailGuide.

Though I only used NationalParkTrailGuide a week ago while I visited Bryce Canyon for the very first time! I really enjoyed using it because it has the NPs to choose from and options of Gems ( The best Viewpoints ) and Hikes that have reviews to help navigate you to what you would consider doing. I didn’t have service but NationalParkTrailGuide worked to show me what to visit in the park which was super cool! A big time saver!

I don’t know what happened with the last update. NationalParkTrailGuide no longer works on my iPad. The nice UI that allowed you to easily get to the National Park that you want to see is gone. Instead, you get a screen that says “Guides in progress” and trying sort by most popular or alphabetically does nothing. If you attempt a search, you end up back on the search page with no parks found. Did Adventure Products take over NationalParkTrailGuide and try to make it like their other products? If so, it was a bad idea—I can’t even get a park to come up, so I can’t review the trail information.

Unclear why the development of NationalParkTrailGuide necessitated having to delete it and download it again, but it’s working again. They have a lot of national parks but not all. It would be nice to see the parks on a national map so you could see which ones are near you — even those that don’t have guides. Also, having just used it, the Grand Canyon would be slightly more helpful if it was split between north rim and south rim.

I hate writing reviews, but I'm actually taking the time to write one for NationalParkTrailGuide. Amazing, super intuitive, super easy navigation, and best of all everything is available offline!

This features even family friendly places specific to each park you're looking up!

If you're traveling to any of the major national parks like Yosemite or Grand Canyon, download NationalParkTrailGuide!

I’ve been living in Yosemite for 7 months now and have used NationalParkTrailGuide on every single hike. It even works well on navigating more remote hikes in the northern part of the park. NationalParkTrailGuide is a gem in Yosemite, there is no service in most of the park yet I can still track my location on NationalParkTrailGuide. It tracks elevation gain as well which is very helpful for competitive hikers. Thanks REI!

Very thankful our location was visible on the REI app map.- There was no cellphone service in the park and the only way we could see our location was on the REI app map. This was extremely important to us because there were times where we were unsure where we were.

After the latest update it keeps crashing when trying to open it. And yes I have done everything: unloading and redownloading, shut down phone, exit and restart app. But to no avail. I use NationalParkTrailGuide everytime we go to Acadia, although makes me wish we had more national parks in the Northeast, but I’m planning a road trip to Yellowstone this upcoming year and need NationalParkTrailGuide to work. App is great for a good starting point when planning a trip and other info. If NationalParkTrailGuide stops crashing then I’ll bring NationalParkTrailGuide back again to 5.

For Zion National Park they offer a Family Friendly section. The number one suggestion is Angels Landing hike. A hike with multiple deaths including a 13 year old girl in 2018. The National Park Service lists this hike as one of the most strenuous and not for young children. I hike and camp with my kids every month and do long hikes with them. Whoever curates the REI family friendly section should be held liable when families use NationalParkTrailGuide as a reference. NationalParkTrailGuide says, “kids that reach the top will never forget the journey or the view”. That 13 year old girl who died doesn’t remember the view.

NationalParkTrailGuide not only showed us some great places to go but while on the trails the gps never failed and we actually helped two other hiking groups find their way as well! I recommend this to anyone who wants to get more hiking experience, it makes it easy, approachable, and fun.

I love NationalParkTrailGuide and the service it provides! I had went hiking in the mountains and on my way back I got a little off path and to save time versus backtracking I looked at NationalParkTrailGuide and it showed my location to the path and I easily found my way back on path. Also don’t forget the sunscreen!

Best hiking app I've ever used. Profile views, great descriptions. When asked, how much further, I could pull up the profile and say 2 tenths of a mile and 60ft vertical. Better than the park map or the guidebook. Specifically because every trail is there and you can delineate just the parts that work for you.

Used it for planning trip to Yosemite and while on trails. Accurate info and easy to navigate. Slight recommended upgrades would include more non-trail general info (buses, food options) and the ability to locate others on trail would be awesome. But you won't find a better free app for the national parks.

You can count on REI for great information and equipment to help you enjoy the outdoors. This is a user friendly application that offers free access to a treasure house of current information and maps. Check NationalParkTrailGuide first before buying expensive programs.

I have recently started to hike and am a photographer so I love hikes that provide photography opportunities. Michigan is home to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (not in NationalParkTrailGuide ), Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, voted ‘Most Beautiful Place in America’ by Good Morning America (not in NationalParkTrailGuide ), and North Country National Scenic Trail (not in NationalParkTrailGuide ), Huron-Manistee National Forest (not in NationalParkTrailGuide ), and Hiawatha National Forest (not in app.)
Why have you forgotten Michigan. As much as I would love to see all the other park and National Forests, I want to start at home.
I am sooo disappointed.

I never leave reviews on items, but NationalParkTrailGuide is so incredible that I had to, and for it to be free is even more incredible! It’s so detailed and gives an amazing overview of all of the parks. It has helped me plan every vacation I’ve had at a National Park and has been a tremendous help.