HOW IT WORKS

Join us for the Metroparks Trail Challenge! This is the perfect way to challenge yourself to get out to all 13 Metroparks and explore new trails. Each Metropark has a specific Challenge Trail or two for you to visit and earn incentives. You will visit the Challenge Trail in each park, find the Challenge Trail kiosk(s), take a selfie and then use the scannable QR code to upload it to the online leaderboard. Each Challenge Trail you visit earns you a badge on the online leaderboard – and incentives. You can visit all kiosks in a park for an extra challenge – 18 in all!

New this year, all parks will have a Challenge Trail with a kiosk that is accessible and pet-friendly so that everyone can participate. That means some parks will have more than one Challenge Trail to choose from on your visit to that park.

The cost to participate is $35 per person. Each registered participant will receive a custom Trail Challenge tumbler at the start of the challenge.  But this year, you can also choose to register your pup to participate!  For $10, register your furry trail buddy and they will get a custom Trail Challenge dog tag. Dogs will not earn additional incentives. You will see the option to add dog registration once you add your Trail Challenge to your cart. Look at the bottom of the screen for a button with a graphic of the dog tag itself. If you decide to add your dog on after you have already registered, you can use the same button at the bottom of the page.

The Trail Challenge will run from May 1 to October 31, but registration will close on October 24 to give you time to complete Challenge Trails and add them to the leaderboard.

Now for the best part … the incentives!

With your paid registration you will receive a custom tumbler that you will have to pick up in-person from one of our park offices, beginning May 10.

But you can earn more! When you visit the parks and hit a designated Challenge Trail, you’ll earn additional incentives. These trails have a specific kiosk along them, where you take a selfie to upload to the leaderboard. Each Challenge Trail you visit earns you a special badge on the online leaderboard.

For each Challenge Trail you visit, you will earn a custom sticker specific to that park that goes on your Trail Challenge tumbler. And if you earn all 13 badges (one from each park) you will also earn a 2026 Metroparks Annual Vehicle Pass so you can keep exploring the trails for another year. You can visit all kiosks in a park for an extra challenge – 18 in all (but no extra incentives are earned for this)!

Additional earned incentives (stickers and annual pass) are mailed out in November.