HeartSmart Trails

The HeartSmart Trail program is intended to encourage people to take the first step toward a healthier lifestyle. Walking can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, improve blood pressure control, decrease the risk for type 2 diabetes, breast and colon cancer and help control weight. Heart Smart Trails are generally 1-mile in length or less and follow a hard surface, level path. Bronze medallions are embedded in the path every 1/10 of a mile so walkers can keep track of the distance they have traveled. Go ahead… take your first step toward a healthier life!

There are four HeartSmart Trails:

• Brookside Gardens at Wheaton Regional Park: The trail follows a popular pathway around this 50-acre public display garden that is open year-round, sunrise to sunset. The trail begins at the rear of the Visitors Center. Use the “Walking Log” to record the date, distance you’ve traveled and the time it took.
• South Germantown Recreational Park: The trail, 0.8 mile in length, starts near the King Dairy Mooseum and continues past a championship miniature golf course, a tot lot, Splash Playground and Central Park Pond where there is shoreline access to fishing and a model boat launch. If you are interested in longer walks, there are two other trails in the park that are over a mile.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Recreational Park: The MLK Jr. HeartSmart trail is 0.8 miles in length. Begin at the kiosk on the path by the parking lot past the Swim Center. If you are interested in other walks, there are two other trails in the park you can follow.
• Wall Local Park: The Wall Local Park HeartSmart trail is 0.1 miles in length.

Unless noted otherwise on the map, trails marked “Natural Surface” and “Hard Surface” are “Shared by All” trails which includes hikers, bikers, and equestrians.