Photo: YonderStone · CC BY-SA 4.0Few parks or trails are on the map in Glencoe
0.5 miles of mapped trail cross Glencoe. 38% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 47 acres are parks and preserves, 8.7 per 1,000 residents.
Ahead of 20% of U.S. towns · #116 of 187 in Alabama. What drives it
How much outdoors does Glencoe have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Glencoe is ahead of 20% of U.S. towns, #116 of 187 in Alabama. All four inputs are below most U.S. towns; park acres per resident come closest.
Few Alabama towns conserve much land (a typical one, 1%; the U.S., 4%), so Glencoe’s 1% is ahead of 48% of Alabama towns, while its trails per square mile lead 21% of them.
PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
94 conserved acres
1% of Glencoe’s land. Who manages Glencoe’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| State-owned Submerged Lands Resource Management Area | State natural resources | 53 | Open |
| Wilson Park Local Park | Town or city | 17 | Open |
| Hollingsworth Park Local Park | Town or city | 17 | Open |
| Unknown Park Local Park | Town or city | 8 | Open |
2 places to go in Glencoe
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
2 playgrounds without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.
1 lakes & rivers
0.0 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
The best walking months in Glencoe: April and May
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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 10.1 | 10.9 | 11.9 | 13.0 | 13.9 | 14.4 | 14.2 | 13.4 | 12.3 | 11.3 | 10.3 | 9.9 |
| High (°F) | 53 | 58 | 66 | 74 | 81 | 88 | 90 | 90 | 85 | 75 | 64 | 56 |
| Rain (in) | 5.0 | 5.3 | 5.5 | 4.7 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 3.4 | 4.2 | 5.2 |
October is the driest month (3.4 in) and July the warmest (highs of 90 °F). 5.5 inches fall in March, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 90 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Glencoe →
Glencoe and its neighbors
Glencoe has the second most mapped trails of the 4 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.
| Town | Conserved of land | Trail mi per sq mi | Park acres per 1,000 | Near a park ½ mile | Outdoors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glencoe | 1% | under 0.1 | 9 | 38% | C− |
| Gadsden | 5% | 0.6 | 25 | 74% | B+ |
| Hokes Bluff | 1% | under 0.1 | 8 | 20% | D |
| Southside | 1% | under 0.1 | under 1 | 8% | D |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Glencoe
How much of Glencoe is conserved land?
1% of its land, against a typical 1% for an Alabama town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Is there public land near Glencoe?
6,974 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Glencoe or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 100 of them inside the city line.
How much outdoors does Glencoe have?
Ahead of 20% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #116 of 187 in Alabama. 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 Glencoe neighbors.
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 →