Lehigh Valley Trail Park Map

A project where I remade Monroe County’s Lehigh Valley Trail Park map to make it more useful compared to what is currently offered. This new, updated map makes it easy for trail goers to determine trail distances between roads, find parking, plus locate points of interest along the trail.

Mockup of two Monroe County Lehigh Valley Trail Park Maps
Mockup of the front and back of the Monroe County Lehigh Valley Trail park maps.
Closeup image of the Lehigh Valley Trail Park Map feautring Mendon Station, and a portion of Rochester Junction. Pictograms are visible.
Closeup view of the Mendon portion of the trail, showcasing many trail features represented by pictograms.
Closeup image of Lehigh Valley Trail rules from park hours, no motorized vehicles, to visuals on how to use the trails in regards to walking, biking, horse riding, cross country skiing, and ATVs.
The back of the map features simple explanation of trail rules, as well as an illustrative visual on what can and cannot be done on the trails.
Closeup image of a section of trail distances between roads on the Lehigh Valley Trail. Roads that go over the trail via a bridge are also marked.
The back of the map also features distances between each road, as well as if a bridge goes over the trail.

Development

What's Currently Offered

The Monroe County Parks Department currently offeres a map of the trail online, but while the trail is mapped, it feels a bit fague on what’s present, and it may be difficult to read on first glance.

Map of the Lehigh Valley Trail Park provided by the Monroe County Parks Department, were the trail is difficult to find at first.
The current map that is offered. On it, it's a bit difficult to clearly names of the flags (parking access points), and fails to indicate what services are provided at such parking access points.

Field Research

To ensure accuracy of the map, I explored the entirety of the Lehigh Valley Trail within Monroe County during the month of May and noted everything from noteworthy signage, to a simple bench along the trail.

Familiarity

Almost all pictograms used are used by the National Parks Service, as well as the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. This choice in style ensure that users can easily and intuitively understand the meanings, and gives it a professional look. Custom made pictograms still have a sense of familiarity.

Closeup image of various pictograms used for the Lehigh Valley Trail map from Benches, to Restrooms, Historical Markers, Bike Repair Stations, and more.
The pictograms used in the map.
Close up image of the map highlighting the pictograms in use.

Accessibility

This map is designed with accessibility in mind, ensuring users who have common color-blindness such as protanopia and deuteranophia are still able to tell the colors of each trail, as well as tell apart from a road and trail.

Image of a portion of the Lehigh Valley Trail Map with Protanopia colors.
Trail map with Protanopia vision shown (pictograms removed).
Image of a portion of the Lehigh Valley Trail Map with Deuteranophia colors.
Trail map with Deuteranophia vision shown (pictograms removed).

Download

You can download this map for personal use! See page two for what you can and cannot do. Please be aware that the PDF document is 8.5 x 14 inches, so it won’t print kindly on standard letter sized paper.

Download Map

For a version featuring metric units (or both imperial and metric), please contact Thomas! Images below provide a sample of the different versions.

Closeup sample of the Lehigh Valley Trail Distances section in imperial.
Imperial units.
Closeup sample of the Lehigh Valley Trail Distances section in metric.
Metric units.
Closeup sample of the Lehigh Valley Trail Distances section in both imperial and metric.
Both units.

For more information about the Lehigh Valley Trail in Monroe County, see the Monroe County Parks page.