I emailed my local government to ask about whether it is allowed to walk on the trails at night because the signage at one of the places I like to go during the day says that the trails are only open from sunrise to sunset, and it is apparently a county wide rule.
This really depends. Most of the parks I go to do not enforce this timing. As an example, they do not lock the gates/actively patrol the area to look for intruders.
These openings hour usually means “We are not responsible for anything that happened during these time periods”
Okay, true story. We had a meetup of flashlight nerds at a state park with a lake. This was the third or fourth time. Apparently the park closes at sundown but we never had an issue and I for one never saw that rule posted anywhere. But this time two police SUVs roll up on us. When they asked what we were doing and we all answered something along the lines of “showing off our flashlights!” they were flumaxed. It took handing them a GT90 before they believed us. In the end they let us stay for as long as we wanted because we were being respectful of where we were and nobody who’s up to no good would use “flashlight meetup” as a cover story.
I don’t think that story will help you out but hopefully picturing that interaction makes you chuckle and I wish you all the best in your nighttime hikes.
That’s a good story! I’d think that nobody up to no good would draw such attention to themselves visually with an egregiously bright flashlight anyway.
I’m waiting for someone who passes by at night jogging in my neighborhood with their phone as a light to ask about my flashlight so I can enlighten them lol.
brb, Gotta go do some crimes and tell them I am testing flashlights.
Ymmv, but I night ride on my MTB and it depends on the park whether it’s being enforced or not. I regularly ride at a park way past dark and have several times seen the police drive right past me and not say a word. And the places where they do, I’ve only been told to leave without so much as a written warning.
I see those rules a way to guarantee probable cause when they suspect people are up to no good at a public park at night (and chances are, they’re right). It’s still a risk, but one I’m willing to accept.
We’re kinda lucky here in that, while many parks technically close at sunset, there’s a growing number of bike trails being built on old rail lines that go through some scenic/wooded areas, and those don’t really have time restrictions.
Rule, yes probably. Actual enforcement is a different matter, and varies a lot. There are places I know are too remote to realistically enforce the rules, because there’s no other way to get there but hiking, and local governments aren’t likely to be finding money in the budget for patrolling park rangers or cops on those trails every single night.
I find that if a trail is anywhere near a body of water, enforcement is stricter. That’s probably because they don’t want to be legally responsible in any way for someone drowning in one of their parks.
I hope you find a pleasant place where you can hike in peace!
