GIS Data Products

NHT Route Data

The National Trails office provides GIS data for national historic trail alignments via the Integrated Resource Management Applications Portal (IRMA). IRMA is the National Park Service's data and information clearinghouse and houses the authoritative datasets, as ESRI shapefiles/feature services, for NPS administered or co-administered trail alignments. These geospatial datasets are available for public download and use. Below are the links to IRMA references for each of the trail alignments:

• California NHT
• Butterfield Overland NHT
• El Camino Real de Los Tejas NHT
• El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro NHT
• Mormon Pioneer NHT
• Old Spanish NHT
  • Feasibility Study alignment
• Oregon NHT
• Pony Express NHT
• Santa Fe NHT
• Trail of Tears NHT

Ten Trails NHT Interactive Map

Take a deeper dive into the routes of the NHTs. The viewer allows you to search for sites, determine their relationship to the trail alignments, measure distances, zoom in and out, or adjust layers and background types.

GIS Interactive Trails Map Viewer

Visitor Activities Interactive Maps

If you like using an ArcGIS platform to plan your trip or discover certain types of vistor opportunities, delve into these maps and explore!

• California NHT
• El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro NHT
• El Camino Real de los Tejas NHT
• Mormon Pioneer NHT
• Old Spanish NHT
• Oregon NHT
• Pony Express NHT
• Santa Fe NHT
• Trail of Tears NHT

Survey 123

Partners with agreements can participate in the Survey 123 project, creating a working database of the location and condition of signs and exhibits across the NHTs administered by NTIR.

Survey123 (officially ArcGIS Survey123) is a form‑centric data collection app created by Esri. It’s widely used in fieldwork—especially in natural resources, parks, and environmental monitoring—because it makes it easy to collect structured information with a phone, tablet, or web browser.

What Survey123 is

• A tool for building smart forms that capture data, photos, locations, and signatures.
• Part of the ArcGIS ecosystem, so all data collected feeds directly into maps, layers, dashboards, and analysis.
• Works online or offline, which is great for field teams working in remote areas.

Why it’s used in parks and resource management

• Standardizes field observations.
• Reduces data entry errors.
• Immediately updates maps for staff and management.
• Helps create audit trails for maintenance, safety, or compliance tasks.
• Monitoring conditions on trails, viewpoints, or historic sites

Points of Interest

A point of interest (POI) in GIS refers to any specific, identifiable location on a map that is useful or meaningful for analysis, navigation, or interpretation.

In simple terms, a POI is a place you might want to locate, describe, or reference. If you want to have your trail-related site listed as a POI for NHT and NPS mapping, contact us.

Common examples of POIs:

• Trailheads
• Visitor centers
• Scenic viewpoints
• Historic sites
• Park facilities (restrooms, picnic areas)
• Landmarks or named feature

Typical characteristics of a POI:

• It has a precise geographic location (usually stored as a coordinate point).
• It includes attributes such as name, type, description, and sometimes additional data like hours, photos, or accessibility info.
• It helps users understand what’s available in an area or supports spatial analyses.