Welcome to the City of Bowie's

The City of Bowie is located along the Patuxent River, one of the largest undeveloped greenways on the East Coast. The City of Bowie has earned the designations of a Bicycle Friendly Community and a Trail Town USA with nearly 32 miles of off-road trails, including improved and unimproved trails, 10 miles of trails under HOA jurisdiction and approximately 5.5 miles of trails used by equestrians. Several nationally recognized trail systems exist in the Bowie vicinity. The American Discovery Trail (ADT) and the East Coast Greenway (ECG) have been designated as National Millennium Trails via the National Millennium Trails Program. The Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and the regional Washington, Baltimore and Annaoplis (WB&A) Trail to the north of the City present opportunities for the local Bowie trail network to link with this trail system. Thus, staff prepared the City of Bowie Trail Master Plan to identify where linkages or amenities were needed and to prioritize such projects. The Bowie Trails Master Plan proposes adding 37 miles of off-road trails and 55 miles of on-road trails. The Master Plan also recommends the construction of an additional 11 miles of equestrian trails and 7 miles of water trails along the Patuxent River. These changes will increase the City’s current trail system to 110 miles of hiker/biker, horse and water trails under the jursdiction of a governmental agency.

Existing development and environmental constraints play a major role in determining the locations and feasibility of trail routes. In some instances, trails follow utility rights-of- way such as the Washington-Baltimore-Annapolis (WBA) Trail, corridors of former rail lines, waterways or, if sufficient right-of-way exists, along streets or highways. In these cases, adopting an existing corridor may be easier, less costly and have fewer environmental impacts than acquiring new land for trails. Thus, these greenways create trail linkages.

All trail, existing and proposed, have been placed on a Geographic Information System (GIS) to accurately map their locations and characteristics. A City of Bowie Trail Brochure is being developed.

Trails under construction include:

Historic Lansdale Trail
Gallant Fox Lane Urban Retrofit and Wetland Restoration