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Skagway aerial viewPhoto: Christopher Michel from San Francisco, USA · CC BY 2.0
A+Outdoors
Outdoors in Skagway

More than half of Skagway’s land is conserved: 52%

52% of Skagway’s land is conserved, about 3,157 acres. 14 miles of mapped trail cross Skagway, 1.5 per square mile of land. 43 acres are parks and preserves, 36 per 1,000 residents.

Ahead of 96% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land
52%
3,157 acres · of 9.5 sq mi of land
Trails
14 mi
1.5 per sq mi of land
Park land
43 ac
36 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
88%
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
0.2 mi
0.2 mi paths
Lakes & rivers
4
1 beach · 3 boat launches

What kind of outdoors town is Skagway?

Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.

Land that stays wild52% of the land is conserved; a typical Alaska town, 15%.A trail town1.5 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, more than 88% of U.S. towns.Parks close to home88% of residents live within a half mile of a park.
Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Skagway have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Skagway is ahead of 96% of U.S. towns. All four inputs are above most U.S. towns; conserved land ranks highest, the share of residents near a park lowest.

A+
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Skagway’s overall grade.
Conserved land52% of the land · typical AK town 15% · U.S. 4%A+Trails1.5 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (14 mi) · AK 0.5 · U.S. 0.4APark land36 acres of park per 1,000 residents (43 acres) · AK 15 · U.S. 13A−Parks close to home88% of residents within a half mile of a park · AK 36% · U.S. 72%B+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 96%
LessMore

Alaska towns conserve more land than most (a typical one, 15%; the U.S., 4%), so Skagway’s 52% is ahead of 78% of Alaska towns, while its trails per square mile lead 80% of them.

How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from A to A+. Trails and many small parks come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers, so coverage varies from town to town; the half mile is a straight line from each census block, so a river or highway in the way isn’t counted against it.

PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →

The map

Conserved land, trails & bike routes

Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.

1234
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk

Pick a walk

The longest trail network is Skagway Centennial Park, with 0.4 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.

Skagway Centennial Park

Park
7 acres0.4 mi of trail
Pullen Creek Stream Walk
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the trailhead

Tongass National Forest

Managed by United States Forest Service
332 acres0.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet

Seven Pastures

Park
35 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto Seven Pastures Parking Lot

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park

Managed by National Park Service
22 acres0.1 mi of trail
Dogs usually limited
Directionsto the trailheadWebsite ↗
Who protects it

3,157 conserved acres

52% of Skagway’s land. Who manages Skagway’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

State natural resources2,818 ac
U.S. Forest Service333 ac
Bureau of Land Management4 ac
National Park Service2 ac
State Other or Unknown · 2,818 acNational Forest · 333 acNational Public Lands · 4 acHistoric or Cultural Area · 2 ac
Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. Public access isn’t recorded for 3 of 6 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
State Tentatively Approved (tad)
State Other or Unknown
State natural resources2,798Unknown
Tongass National Forest
National Forest
U.S. Forest Service333Open
State Patented
State Other or Unknown
State natural resources12Unknown
State Land Disposals - Other Than Municipal
State Other or Unknown
State natural resources8Unknown
Glennallen Field Office
National Public Lands
Bureau of Land Management4Open
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
Historic or Cultural Area
National Park Service2Restricted
Things to do

20 places to go in Skagway

Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.

Waterfalls in Skagway
Lower Reid Falls
Directions
Upper Reid Falls
Directions
Trails & water

8 named trails and 4 lakes & rivers

Named trails
Open to bikes · 0.9 miHorses · 0.9 miUnpaved · 3.0 mi
Lower Dewey Lake Loop1.7 mi
AB Mountain Trail0.6 mi
Yakutania Point Trail0.5 mi
Yakutania Point Access Trail0.4 mi
Rio Faux Lobo0.3 mi
Smugglers Cove Trail0.3 mi
Lower Reid Falls Trail0.2 mi
Pullen Creek Stream Walk0.1 mi
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Icy LakeLower Dewey LakePullen PondSkagway River
Biking & sports

0.2 miles of bike routes

Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.

0.2 mi
off-road bike paths
Courts & fields
3Baseball

Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.

When to get out

The best walking months in Skagway: May to August

NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)6.89.111.614.417.018.617.915.512.710.07.56.1
High (°F)293338506166676557473732
Rain (in)2.72.02.01.71.11.41.62.74.54.43.44.0

May is the driest month (1.1 in) and July the warmest (highs of 67 °F). 4.5 inches fall in September, the wettest month. The climate in Skagway →

Questions about parks and trails in Skagway

Where can I hike in Skagway?

The longest trail networks: Skagway Centennial Park, 0.4 miles; Tongass National Forest, 0.1 miles; Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, 0.1 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.

How much of Skagway is conserved land?

52% of its land, against a typical 15% for an Alaska town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Are dogs allowed on Skagway’s trails?

Skagway Centennial Park and Tongass National Forest don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Where can I bike in Skagway?

0.2 miles of bike routes are on the map: 0.2 of off-road paths.

Is there public land near Skagway?

86,177 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Skagway or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 163 of them inside the town line.

How much outdoors does Skagway have?

Ahead of 96% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

Trail talk

Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Skagway neighbors.

Town Square →
Share a tip
Sources

Where this page comes from

Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →