The Mount Vernon Trail has secured a place in Rails to Trails Conservancy’s catalog of the nation’s best trails.
Trails advocacy organization Rails to Trails Conservancy announced that the Mount Vernon Trail received 58% of public votes to win the Hall of Fame accolade. The other nominees were National Battlefield Trail in Texas and the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail in Ohio. Public voting was open from Aug. 5 to 16.
The 18.5-mile Mount Vernon Trail is vying for the Rails to Trails Conservancy’s 2026 Trail Hall of Fame and needs public votes to win the accolade.
Mount Vernon Trail is one of three nominees for Rails to Trails Conservancy’s Hall of Fame, which the nonprofit has been recognizing multi-use trails on since 2007. Other nominees this year are the National Battlefield Trail in Texas and the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail in Ohio. Online voting started Aug. 5 and closes Aug. 16. Mount Vernon Trail fans can vote daily.
Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail, a volunteer group dedicated to trail maintenance and education efforts, was recognized with an award last month for its trail renovation work.
The organization was honored with the “Trail of the Year” award from the Public Lands Alliance at the nonprofit’s conference in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Feb. 23. The group received the award for its partnership with the National Park Service to renovate the George Washington Memorial Parkway’s trail surface and rest areas from 2024 to 2025.
With teamwork, grit and a reciprocating saw, a group of volunteers in Alexandria successfully removed a piece of debris from the Mount Vernon Trail that they estimate weighed at least 500 pounds.
The Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail discovered the debris, a large sling fender, sitting in the Potomac River’s low tide line near the Marina Towers building at 501 Slaters Lane during the Nov. 15 Mega Trash Bash cleanup.
