For outdoor & hiking sites
Interactive trail maps, summit markers, and route visualisations — the tools that turn a hiking article into a trip-planning resource your readers bookmark and return to.
Hikers are some of the most engaged readers on the internet — they research exhaustively before they ever lace up a boot. A custom interactive trail map on your site means they spend that research time with you, not with a generic trail app that has no relationship with your content or your brand.
↑ New Zealand's Great Walks and alpine routes — this is the kind of trail map your readers could explore on your site.
When a hiker is planning a trip, they want to see the trail. They want to know where the track starts, where the huts are, which section is the hardest, and what the summit looks like on a map. Static images and written descriptions only go so far. An interactive map — one they can zoom, pan, and click — gives them the spatial understanding they're looking for.
Outdoor and hiking sites that embed trail maps see dramatically longer session times because users are genuinely exploring — zooming into a section of trail, reading popup notes about campsites, comparing route options. That kind of interaction is measurable, monetisable, and irreplaceable by AI-generated text.
Polylines showing the exact trail path, colour-coded by difficulty or track type.
Clickable markers with details on facilities, booking requirements, and conditions.
Peak locations with elevation data, difficulty ratings, and approach notes.
Access points with parking info, transport links, and start-of-trail details.
Seasonal hazards, river crossings, exposed ridges — mapped and annotated.
Pin your best photography spots so readers know exactly where to stand.
Most outdoor content sites publish articles about trails. A page with a custom interactive map is something different — it's a tool. Tools get bookmarked. Tools get shared by hiking groups and trail communities. Tools get linked to from other sites as genuine resources. That's a fundamentally different kind of traffic than article traffic.
A well-built trail map page on your site can become the de-facto reference for that trail in your region — the page that ranks, that gets linked, and that brings in searchers who are actively planning a trip. Those visitors have intent. They stay longer. They return. They click your affiliate links and respond to your newsletter opt-ins.
Every map I build for outdoor sites uses Leaflet.js and open geographic data — OpenStreetMap trails, elevation datasets, government track databases. There are no API keys to manage, no monthly fees, no per-request billing. Your trail map loads fast, works offline once cached, and runs forever without ongoing cost.
I also handle data sourcing. If you need trail GeoJSON for a specific region, I know where to get it, how to clean it, and how to format it so it works correctly with Leaflet. You focus on the content; I handle the map infrastructure.
Leaflet is responsive by design, but great mobile hiking maps require extra attention — larger tap targets for markers, appropriate default zoom levels, easy pinch-to-zoom, and offline-ready tile caching. I build for the reader who's checking the map in the carpark before heading up the track, not just the one browsing at home.
Tell me which trails you cover and I'll come back with a specific proposal. Free consultation — no commitment required.
Get a free quote →