Trail symbol
A thin black dashed line on a USGS topographic map is a trail, a symbol the USGS keeps separate from its roads.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The USGS symbol sheet lists the trail among its roads and related features, next to 4WD roads and unimproved roads, and prints roads and trails other than important roads in black. Natural Resources Canada’s legend puts the trail and the portage together as road class H.
Also searched as: black dashed line on a map, dashed line on a topographic map, footpath symbol, path on a map.
These pages describe what each symbol on a map shows. They are not navigation instructions: the map’s own legend says what each of its symbols means, and symbols differ between map series and editions.
Differences by country
Ordnance Survey maps mark footpaths in several colours. On its 1:25 000 Explorer maps the public rights of way are green, and on its 1:50 000 Landranger maps magenta. The OS adds that a path shown in black is not necessarily a public right of way.
Look-alikes
Black dashes on a USGS map can also be a boundary or an unimproved road; the map’s legend says which. A blue line of dashes and dots is an Intermittent stream symbol.
Read next
- Next in Topographic map symbolsRailroad symbolA line crossed by short ticks, like a track seen from above, is a railroad on a topographic map. Pairs of ticks or extra lines mean more than one track.
- The same shape in UML diagram symbolsSynchronous and return messagesArrows between lifelines in a sequence diagram are messages. A solid arrow with a filled head is a synchronous call, where the sender waits; a dashed arrow coming back is the reply.
More topographic map symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines.
Sources
- Topographic Map Symbols, USGS General Information Product (first posted 2005), U.S. Geological Survey, Roads and related features; Reading Topographic Maps
- Toporama Legend, Edition 1.2, 2013 (after the NTS 1:50,000 standards and specifications), Natural Resources Canada, Legend
- Map reading: from the beginner to the advanced map reader, Ordnance Survey leaflet, Ordnance Survey, The basics
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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