By: Andrew Silverstein

While guided tours through a richly historic city like Baltimore are nice and oftentimes deeply informative, sometimes exploring at your own pace is a nice alternative giving you a more personal connection to all the historic sites around town.

Star-Spangled Trails are a great way to strike a balance between these two methods of exploring Baltimore.  Each Star-Spangled trail is distinguished by easy-to-find markers along each distinct trail.  Walking, biking, and car travel are welcome methods to travel each trail.  To get the full-experience, and some good exercise too, we'd say walking is the best way to do it.

Walk through battle-themed trails like the Baltimore Riot Trail.  This 1.6 mile walking trail explores areas where the first fatalities of the Civil War occured, troop training camps, Federal Hill and more.

The Star-Spangled Banner Trail lets you experience firsthand the events leading to the Battle of Baltimore during the war of 1812.  This is the story that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen our famous National Anthem.  This trail explores the Ft. McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, the Flag House where the Star-Spangled Banner was made and Patterson Park.

If nature is more of your thing, Star Spangled Trails can provide.  Hop on your bike and check out the Jones Fall Trail for 15 miles of beautiful scenery from Jones Falls to the Inner Harbor.  Gwynns Falls Trail is another 15 mile biking/hiking trail perfect for the Baltimore nature lover.  Explore Gwynn and Leakin Parks, two of the largest on the East Coast.

These are just a handful of all the Star-Spangled Trails in Baltimore.  To see more, visit the Star Spangled Trails website here and get to planning your trail trip today!