Kenworthy Hall · Photo: RuralSWAlabama · CC BY-SA 3.0Few parks or trails are on the map in Marion
16% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 0.5 miles of mapped trail cross Marion. 10 acres are parks and preserves, 3.4 per 1,000 residents.
Ahead of 8% of U.S. towns · #168 of 187 in Alabama. What drives it
What kind of outdoors town is Marion?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
How much outdoors does Marion have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Marion is ahead of 8% of U.S. towns, #168 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 Marion’s under 1% is ahead of 6% of Alabama towns, while its trails per square mile lead 28% 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.
2 places to go in Marion
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.
2 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.
13 places on the National Register, one a National Historic Landmark
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).
1 more on the History page.
The best walking months in Marion: 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) | 10.2 | 11.0 | 11.9 | 12.9 | 13.8 | 14.3 | 14.1 | 13.3 | 12.3 | 11.3 | 10.4 | 10.0 |
| High (°F) | 56 | 61 | 69 | 76 | 83 | 89 | 91 | 91 | 86 | 77 | 66 | 58 |
| Rain (in) | 5.2 | 5.5 | 5.3 | 4.7 | 3.9 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 3.8 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 5.0 |
October is the driest month (3.2 in) and July the warmest (highs of 91 °F). 5.5 inches fall in February, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 91 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Marion →
Questions about parks and trails in Marion
How much of Marion is conserved land?
under 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 Marion?
2,892 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Marion or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 10 of them inside the city line.
How much outdoors does Marion have?
Ahead of 8% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #168 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 Marion 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 →