Maps

Want to hike in Kentucky? We offer trail maps and info for the Sheltowee Trace, the longest trail in the state. The website is a project by outrageGIS.com to help maintain a printed map for the trail. The most recent maps show the north and south Sheltowee Trace on two publications, which are available for purchase with lamination.

Print maps

Sheltowee Trace North

Mile markers 0–140 of ST and all official trails from the Northern Terminus to McKee, Kentucky. Cave Run Lake and Red River Gorge trail networks shown on single, separate sheets.

$14

Sheltowee Trace South

Mile markers 140–354 of ST from McKee, Kentucky to Rugby, Tennessee in the Big South Fork. Official trails and recreation areas are shown for the southern half of the Daniel Boone NF and the Big South Fork NRRA.

$20

Interactive maps

Recreation facilities map Scenic Trail Index 2021 elevation profile GPS mile-marker finder

These interactive maps are projects developed over the years. Trail alignment and facilities might have changed in the older projects.

History

Climbing between deep hemlock gorges and piney, craggy summits, the Sheltowee Trace is a 354-mile National Recreation Trail (2020 alignment) that spans the Daniel Boone National Forest and Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennessee. The name "Sheltowee" honors the history of Daniel Boone, who was captured by Shawnee Indians while making salt in an area close to the present-day trail. Chief Blackfish, his adopted Shawnee father, renamed him Sheltowee, which meant "Big Turtle."

The Trace was started by a US Forest Service landscape architect Verne Orndorf in the mid-1970s (listen to a 2005 oral history). He envisioned the trail for foot travel only, gaining inspiration from local Sierra Club members who wanted a long-distance footpath in Kentucky. Today, the Trace has an active non-profit, the Sheltowe Trace Association (STA), that actively helps build new trail and maintain existing trail for the public good.

Archive

SheltoweeTrace.com was created in 2004 with the goal to help trail users find good information and maps and to promote the preservation of the trail as a long-distance path. With the evolution of the internet, the main attraction to this site, the forum, couldn't keep up with social media and has been archived. You can view posts and photos from 2004-2019, but cannot post.

Interested in reading thru hike trail logs? Our members have contributed a lot of awesome info to the forum that can help new trail users find a good hikes. It's archived and searchable. Visitors can also explore the history and growth of the Trace, both digitally and on the ground.