Hiking during hunting season: when it matters, where, and what to wear

Yes, with a little care. New York's DEC and Connecticut's DEEP both describe hunting incidents involving non-hunters as extremely rare, and New York recorded 11 hunting-related shooting incidents of any kind in 2024, seven of them self-inflicted.

The care is simple: wear blaze orange, stay on the trail, avoid dawn and dusk, and know when the firearms deer season is open where you're going.

In most places it's a recommendation, not a law. The exception that matters most in the states on this page is Pennsylvania's state game lands. Under the Game Commission's 2026-27 regulations, anyone there who isn't hunting, trapping or fishing must wear 250 square inches of fluorescent orange on the head, chest and back combined, or an orange hat.

The rule applies from October 1 through January 31 and from April 20 through May 31. The orange has to be visible from all sides. Other states set their own rules, so check before a trip.

Not as orange. New York's DEC says deer have no red-sensitive cone cells in their eyes and can't tell orange from green and brown, and that longer wavelengths like orange and pink look darker to them. They see blue, and even ultraviolet, brighter than we do. That's why the color protects people without spoiling the hunt.

It depends on the state, and it has been changing. Pennsylvania's 2026-27 seasons include nearly all Sundays, and New York's deer seasons run on consecutive days, Sundays included. Connecticut now allows Sunday hunting on private land but not on state land, and not within 40 yards of a blazed trail.

New Jersey allows Sunday deer hunting only with a bow, and only on wildlife management areas and private land. The old rule of thumb that Sunday is the safe day no longer holds everywhere.

Mostly not. The National Park Service says hunting isn't allowed in a park unit unless a law specifically provides for it, and that it is allowed in 76 units, most of them preserves, recreation areas, seashores, lakeshores and rivers. Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is one of them. On the Appalachian Trail, the Conservancy names five national parks where hunting is off limits, including Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains.

On more than half of it, yes. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy says hunting is permitted along approximately 1,250 miles of the trail, through national forests, national recreation areas, state forests and game lands, and prohibited along about 900 miles.

The closed stretches are national parks, most state parks, and land the National Park Service bought for the trail. That corridor averages about 1,000 feet wide, and the Conservancy advises wearing blaze orange in fall, winter and spring.

Yes, in part of it. New York State Parks now runs a deer hunt by lottery permit in a section of the park east of the Thruway, on weekdays only and not on holidays. The agency describes the area as roughly 40 percent of the park. A separate section west of the Thruway is hunted under Sterling Forest's permit program. Check the park's page for the season's dates before a fall or winter hike.

You don't have to, though the Green Mountain Club asks Vermont hikers to consider it. If the dog comes, give it a blaze orange vest that shows from every side and keep it leashed. An off-leash dog running through the woods looks more like game than anything else on the trail, and it can also wreck somebody's hunt.

Mostly early and late. Legal hours for most game run from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset, and Connecticut's wildlife agency says the most active stretch is before 9 a.m., with another in late afternoon. A hike that starts mid-morning and ends well before dusk misses both.