The Wildness score
Every hike here carries one number, 0 to 100, answering the question that matters most once your boots are on the dirt: how far does this trail actually take you from the built world?
How we measure it
We map the human footprint around every trail – roads and highways, buildings, industrial sites, farmland, millions of features across the country – and then walk each route virtually, step by step, measuring how close that footprint comes the whole way. A trail that brushes a highway for a quarter mile scores lower than one that never leaves the forest, even if both start from the same parking lot.
The score is absolute, not graded on a curve. A 90 in Rhode Island means the same thing as a 90 in Wyoming, so you can trust the number anywhere you hike.
Reading the scale
- 0–25 Paved and peopled. City parks and neighborhood paths. Pleasant walking, but traffic stays within earshot and the route keeps meeting the street grid.
- 25–50 Green fringe. Greenbelts and open space at the edge of town. Real trail underfoot, with rooftops or a road still slipping into view.
- 50–75 Backcountry feel. The built world falls out of sight and sound for most of the route. This is where a hike starts to feel wild.
- 75–100 Genuinely wild. Remote nearly every step. Roads, buildings, and development simply do not reach here.
Where you’ll see it
The same scale colors everything on Ambleway: the dots on the search map (deepest green = wildest), and the Wildness mark on every hike card and hike page. The Wildest hikes leaderboard ranks the whole catalog by it.
What it is not
Wildness is not difficulty, scenery, or solitude. A wild trail can be an easy stroll, and a popular one can still be genuinely remote. The score measures one thing, distance from the built world, and it measures that one thing honestly.