Kettering in England is a typical town — few people would recommend visiting it. Look at the official (government-produced) map: http://binged.it/1SDXCaH (the layer should say "Ordnance Survey", I hope it works outside the UK). The pink dotted/dashed lines are walking, cycling or horseriding paths. There are lots!
Kettering was chosen at random. Scroll north and some pink lines have pink diamonds — these are long-distance leisure routes, often with some kind of theme or historical purpose to the route.
I spent a lot of time as a child touring the USA with my parents. The national parks were great! But outside these parks, are footpaths rare?
Rare? No. There are not a great number of regional paths, but there are lots of local paths in state/county/city parks, and in nature areas that are not so developed as to be called parks.
The regional path thing is changing somewhat as rail easements are converted to trails, but those tend to be a little bland.
There are also national trails like, for example, the Appalachian Trail (2,200 miles) and North Country Trail (4,600 miles planned, 2,700 miles completed).
Kettering in England is a typical town — few people would recommend visiting it. Look at the official (government-produced) map: http://binged.it/1SDXCaH (the layer should say "Ordnance Survey", I hope it works outside the UK). The pink dotted/dashed lines are walking, cycling or horseriding paths. There are lots!
Kettering was chosen at random. Scroll north and some pink lines have pink diamonds — these are long-distance leisure routes, often with some kind of theme or historical purpose to the route.
I spent a lot of time as a child touring the USA with my parents. The national parks were great! But outside these parks, are footpaths rare?