This trail is filled with Jefferson history…great for any history buffs. I drive to charlottesville quite often with a large poodle. This is our first stop to get us out of the car and so he can relieve himself. All in all the trail is about 4 miles in total. My biggest suggestion is to park in the Saunders Monticello trail and kemper lot. If coming from Charlottesville you cannot turn left into the lots I just continue down rt 53 and do a u turn. If you do park at the proper parking lot it is right and you may have problems getting out .

Family of 5 with 3 teens decided to combine this trail with a tour of Monticello for a day trip, but it was a bit tricky to figure out how we wanted to go about it. I called it our fall presidential adventure. It was a way to get a hike for mom and dad to see pretty fall colors and incorporate some history in the spirit of the election season. We opted for parking in the Jefferson lot, though you could park at the Rubenstein Vistor's Center or a couple of other lots. It seemed more practical to do Jefferson, walk uphill, then walk down on the way back, get back in car and drive over to do the tour. If you like to take pics, I'd plan on at least an extra half hour. I also found my hiking boots to be a bit heavy and likely unecessary for this trail. The biggest hazzard wan't tree roots or anything like that, but rather leaves on the boardwalk that could be slippery. It warns of bears in the start of the trail, but we did not see any. If you bring bear spray, be sure to put it away before security for the tour as no knives, mace etc can go through there. There is no bathroom unless you hike all the way to the vistor's center, so go ahead of time and pack toilet paper just in case. If all else fails there seemed to be a small unpopulated trail opposite the trail going to Carter's Overlook in the first half mile if necessary. Otherwise, you'd be hard pressed to find a seculded place to go as it is mostly boardwalks. The main trail head lot is small, but people go in and out fairly quickly and there is an alternate lot on Dairy Barn Rd. You hit the Carter's Overlook pretty quickly. It is worth a quick climb off the trail, but not impressive. Views of the mountains can be seen from a lot of the main trail and were the best by Thomas Jefferson's house while touring the grounds. The trail and parking are free though, while the tour has a fee. We knocked out the first mile pretty quickly, but from there it was confusing as you hit one of the last of many boardwalks (I think there were 9 or 10 marked with their corresponding boardwalk number). One of them said at this point you have something like .85 miles to go if you want to reach the vistor's center. If you were to go that far, it seemed like it would be more than the 4.3 mile total listed. Due to our timed tour, we stopped short of the final boardwalk to ensure we'd have enough time to get back and drive over to the tour. Then once we got to the vistor center's parking lot, we took an unorthodox approach of trying to complete it from that end. We again ran out of time as you walk from the lot, pass over a bridge, then back to the final boardwalk that seemed to go on forever. We walked half way down and two of the teens ran ahead to check for us if the end of it was in sight and it wasn't. So, we walked back and had to high tail it to the tour to be on time. The mile markers were good on the first half of our original route, but then kind of dropped off. We likely walked over 5 miles. I agree with a review that said car noise isn't ideal on a hike. Most of the hike was pretty quiet, but you do have to cross over a small road of traffic that is driving to the visitor's center and it gets nosier as you go along. The weather was great with low 60s and sunny. You got just enough sun here and there mixed with plenty of shade. The many boardwalks were unique and allowed for us to walk together more than single file style hiking. The trail itself has a bit of an incline at first, but was mostly easy. The biggest complaints were confusing mileage and no bathroom at the trail head. The fall colors were maybe slightly past peak, but very good. There were plenty of benches along the way, but almost no trashcans. It was nice to see a variety of abilities enjoying the trail including wheelchairs, a blind person and strollers, though I wouldn't want to push anything up the first section. There were also nice signs identifying trees at start of trail. My feet were blistered at the end, so tennis shoes might have been better. If you have non hiking kids or even if you don't, combining the hike with the tour mixes it up a bit and worked well for us. We took the shuttle up to the tour from the visitor's center lot and unintentionally got more hiking done as we followed a path back down the Monticello grounds passing by a cool vegetable garden, great mountain views President Jefferson's grave and a nice wooded trail to the parking lot. Overall, I'm not sure we'd do it the same way again or park at Rubenstein (depends on if you want to start downhill or up), but it would really help to understand the trail better as to where it officially ends and to know bathrooms are scarce. It was mostly an enjoyable adventure and educational field trip for the kids that combined our interests in the same area and massive grounds of the estate. 4 stars because we've done better trails with more variety and more restrooms, but still very good for unique boardwalks and fall colors.

Nice shaded trail with views of Charlottesville. We began at Monticello parking lot and walked to the bottom and back. It's all downhill out and uphill back, from our car was 4.75 miles total. Lots of bridges. 407' of gain total mostly on the return trip. We're not charged to park at Monticello and if you go through security you can use the bathrooms or go to the gift shop or snack shop.

We walked from the lower end of the trail near Virginia State Route 53 to the upper end leading to the David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center. The trail is well-groomed and wide but it is also a good workout since it goes up and down a mountain. Quite a few of the plants are labeled and the ten extended boardwalks are elevated enough to provide good views. There are also plenty of benches along the trail. The Rubinstein Visitor Center is very convenient. Even if you don’t buy tickets for Monticello, you may use the restrooms, eat at the café, and visit the gift shop, and enjoy the surrounding grounds.

This was the perfect walk. 2 miles gradually uphill and a break at the visitor center then a leisurely downhill trek back down.