You may not have heard about the Buffalo Soldiers, but they were professional Black enlistees serving in the first segregated regiments of the regular peacetime U.S. Army formed after the Civil War. But you have no doubt benefited from the legacy they left in America’s national parks and you may have even traversed the roads and trails they built.    

According to lore, these men were nicknamed Buffalo Soldiers by the Plains Indians who fought against them (in the late 19th century) because their dark, curly hair resembled buffalo fur, and out of respect for their fierce and stalwart actions in battle. 

These Black soldiers were often assigned difficult and dangerous duties at remote and isolated posts, including patrolling and protecting the first national parks in the U.S. before the National Park Service was established in 1916. Buffalo Soldiers were among the first rangers in Yosemite and what is now Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California. In fact, the distinctive, four-peaked flat hat Park Service rangers wear today is partly modeled after hats worn by Buffalo Soldiers.

Their work in the parks ranged from fighting wildland fires near what is now Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana to installing telegraph lines near Fort Davis National Historic Site in West Texas to building the Park Service’s first arboretum in Yosemite, where hundreds of Buffalo Soldiers worked in the early 1900s. The arboretum is no longer there, but Yosemite’s Wawona Campground is near its former location.

Driving through the Giant Forest and hiking Mount Whitney are two of the most popular activities in Sequoia National Park—both are possible thanks to the Buffalo Soldiers. They built a wagon road into the Giant Forest which is the present-day automobile route to the site. 

Under the command of Captain Charles Young—who was the first Black national park superintendent and was posthumously promoted to brigadier general in 2021—Buffalo Soldiers completed the first trail in 1903 to the 14,505-foot summit of Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous U.S. 

Mount Whitney straddles Sequoia National Park and the Inyo National Forest, and a hike to the summit requires a wilderness permit (with allocations limited by lottery from May through October). The 11-mile route from Whitney Portal is the shortest and is usually free of ice and snow from mid-July to early October. 

For a shorter, easier excursion along a lower portion of the trail that requires no permit, drive from Lone Pine, Calif. along Whitney Portal Road to the trailhead at Whitney Portal. The six-mile out-and-back hike to Lone Pine Lake is moderately difficult and turns around at a pristine alpine lake with sweeping views of Mount Whitney. 

Buffalo Soldiers have historic ties to at least 20 sites in the national park system, says Roger Osorio, the education outreach coordinator for Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio. The site at Charles Young’s family home honors the acclaimed Army officer and leader and the Buffalo Soldiers.

Young was the third Black man to graduate from West Point Military Academy and led civilian white laborers working alongside the Buffalo Soldiers on trails, roads, and other projects in Sequoia. It’s the same place where the famous soldiers built part of the road, now known as the Buffalo Soldiers Scenic Route, which leads from Crystal Cave to the Generals Highway and north to the Moro Rock/Crescent Meadow Road. Sections of this road are closed to trailers and RVs and sometimes closed to all vehicles in winter, but they remain open for skiing and snowshoeing. 

Allen Mack, an interpretive and education specialist with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s Buffalo Soldiers Heritage and Outreach Program, says the Buffalo Soldiers were skilled military engineers who performed “very back-breaking work” using only hand tools, often in miserable and challenging conditions. 

“These men were carpenters, they were roofers, they were brickmasons, they were farriers, surveyors and the list goes on,” says Mack. “Could you imagine wearing a wool uniform in the middle of summer out there busting rock or moving tons of dirt to make a road or a trail?”

“They don’t get the credit for it that they deserve,” he says.

(Related: These are the 10 most popular national parks.)

Brian K. Chappell knows to credit the Buffalo Soldiers for their hard work in the parks and elsewhere. His great grandfather, Linold Chappell, served in the U.S. Army’s 25th regiment, a Buffalo Soldier unit that in 1915 built the Mauna Loa Trail in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. So, the younger Chappell decided to hike part of that trail in 2022 while on a temporary work assignment in Honolulu.

“It was an emotional connection to be in the outdoors and to know that I was there where he was, where he had helped build this trail,” says Chappell, now a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel. His family has a long and distinguished history of military service. 

Linold Chappell was one of the Buffalo Soldiers who used 12-pound sledgehammers to smash brittle, sharp, and uneven lava rock formations into a flat, stable trail leading to the 13,681-foot Mauna Loa summit.

“It was pretty rough terrain, so I only hiked a portion of it,” says Chappell. “It wasn't so much the physical trail itself, as it was the connection from knowing that my great-grandfather had poured his blood and sweat into this ground.”

The 10-mile hike to the summit is steep and difficult with limited water sources. It is usually an overnight trek that requires a backcountry permit. Some trail sections are closed due to damage from a 2022 eruption; so, check online for details. 

No permit is required for a day hike on the lower parts of the trail. Take Mamalahoa Highway 11 to Mauna Loa Road, continuing to Mauna Loa Lookout at the end of the road. From there, the Mauna Loa Trail follows the path created by the Buffalo Soldiers.

Although they didn’t build trails in Yellowstone National Park, Buffalo Soldiers did make the nearly 800-mile, three-week round-trip excursion to the park from Missoula, Mont. It was one of the earliest group bicycle trips through the park’s geysers, rivers, and peaks. In 1896, a group of eight cyclists carried their tools, food, and other gear, crossing the continental divide multiple times. They visited most of Yellowstone’s major attractions traversing steep dirt roads on single-speed bikes.

Isaiah Gonzalez, a doctor from New York City, didn’t know much about the Buffalo Soldiers until he visited the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston. It’s where he learned about their bicycle trip through Yellowstone as part of a project to evaluate bikes for use by cavalry soldiers. 

“I’m a big-time mountain biker,” says Gonzalez, who has visited 56 national parks, including Yellowstone and Volcanoes. “Biking on terrain like that with the equipment and the bikes shaking is so tough. I can see that was so difficult.”

Gonzalez says learning the history of the Buffalo Soldiers brings him joy because he bikes and runs on these trails. 

Cyclists can explore Yellowstone’s paved roads throughout the summer, but the shoulders are narrow, and traffic can be heavy. Consider biking in the spring after roads are plowed but before autos are allowed (usually in early April) or go biking in the fall after roads close to cars—from the first week of November until snow falls.

 After a visit to Yosemite where Teresa Baker learned about the Buffalo Soldiers’ work there, she organized a road trip with 150 participants in 2014, retracing by car the route Buffalo Soldiers took to the park on horseback from their winter quarters at The Presidio of San Francisco, where more than 450 Buffalo Soldiers are buried.

 Baker, an activist working to get more people of color into public lands and better represented in the outdoors industry, says “It’s important to tell these stories so that people understand they already have a relationship” with the parks. “It’s just about re-establishing those relationships.”

 Baker says sharing stories and following in the footsteps of the Buffalo Soldiers—by car, bike, or on foot—is “a way to help make sure people from all walks of life have access” to America’s national parks.

(Related: Old-fashioned images evoke the complicated history of Black military service.)