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The B & A Trail is a paved rail trail on the old Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad grade through Anne Arundel County. It starts at Boulters Way on the edge of Annapolis. From there it runs north-northwest through Severna Park, Harundale, and Glen Burnie to the BWI Trail loop around the airport. This is a community trail, lined by neighborhoods, small parks, and wooded strips. The grade is nearly flat the whole way. Along the route you pass the Earleigh Heights Ranger Station, the Cattail Creek Natural Area, the Planet Walk with its displays for the sun and each planet, and a series of lettered historical markers. The trail is open from dawn to dusk.
B & A Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the B & A Trail has about 105 to 155 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, running, e-biking, birding, biking, and walking, with April, May, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the B & A Trail!
In half of past years, color along the B & A Trail peaks November 4 to 12, typically around November 8. The trail has 32% deciduous coverage, with the majority being yellow-poplar, sweetgum, and red maple.
Steam trains of the Annapolis and Baltimore Short Line first ran this grade in 1887. New England promoters had chartered the company in 1880. Near Annapolis, the trains crossed the Severn River on a long timber trestle. In 1908 the line was electrified. It took a new name, the Maryland Electric Railways Company. The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis bought it in 1921. That company failed in 1935, and the line went quiet. Bondholders bought it back that August and reorganized it as the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad. Electric cars carried passengers until February 1950. After that, buses carried the passengers and the rails carried freight. Freight stopped reaching Annapolis in 1968, when the trestle over the Severn River went out of service. A year later the Marley Creek Bridge was damaged, and trains stopped running south of Glen Burnie. In 1972 Tropical Storm Agnes washed out the Patapsco River bridge, and all service on the line ended. Maryland passed a law in 1974 asking that the corridor become a trail. Anne Arundel County bought the 66-foot-wide strip in 1979. Crews built the trail in five phases, starting with a mile in Glen Burnie from Dorsey Road to the courthouse. The final phase was finished in October 1990. The trail opened on October 7, 1990, as the second rail trail in Maryland.
