New England Trail

Details

Trail Length: 235 miles
Towns: multiple
Allowed Uses: Hiking Only
Partners: National Park Service, Appalachian Mountain Club

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Trail Overview

The New England National Scenic Trail (NET) is a 235-mile hiking trail route that has been in existence for over half a century. The NET travels through 41 communities in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and is comprised primarily of the historic Mattabesett, Metacomet, and Monadnock Trail systems.

The NET was designated as a National Scenic Trail in 2009. This unique footpath travels through a classic New England landscape and features long-distance vistas with rural towns as a backdrop, agrarian lands, unfragmented forests, and large river valleys. The trail also travels past colonial historical landmarks and highlights a range of diverse ecosystems and natural resources: mountain ridges and summits, forested glades, wetlands and vernal pools, lakes, streams and waterfalls.

CFPA maintains the Connecticut portion of the NET. The Appalachian Mountain Club’s Western MA Chapter maintains the Massachusetts portion of the NET. The National Park Service supports AMC and CFPA in on-the-ground management and coordinates federal funds for NET management and protection.

For information about overnight sites, long-distance hiking, NET history, and to view our interactive trail map, visit newenglandtrail.org

CFPA acknowledges we are on the traditional lands of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, the Mohegans, the Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Nipmuc, and Niantic peoples. We pay our respect to the Indigenous people who are no longer here due to colonization, forced relocation, disease, and warfare. We thank them for stewarding this land throughout generations. We recognize the continued presence of Indigenous people on this territory who have survived attempted genocide, and who still hold ties to the land spiritually and culturally. We shall be good stewards of the land we all call Quinnentucket, Connecticut.