Photo: Thomas R Machnitzki ([email protected]) · CC BY 3.0Bay has 15 acres of parks, 6.5 for every 1,000 residents
87% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 0.4 miles of mapped trail cross Bay, 0.1 per square mile of land.
Ahead of 28% of U.S. towns. What drives it
What kind of outdoors town is Bay?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
How much outdoors does Bay have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Bay is ahead of 28% of U.S. towns. The share of residents near a park holds the grade up; conserved land pulls it down.
Few Arkansas towns conserve much land (a typical one, 1%; the U.S., 4%), so Bay’s under 1% is ahead of 8% of Arkansas towns, while its trails per square mile lead 29% 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.
Pick a walk
Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
2 places to go in Bay
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.
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 walking year in Bay
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) | 10.0 | 10.8 | 11.9 | 13.1 | 14.0 | 14.6 | 14.4 | 13.5 | 12.3 | 11.2 | 10.2 | 9.7 |
| High (°F) | 47 | 52 | 61 | 72 | 80 | 89 | 91 | 90 | 84 | 73 | 60 | 50 |
| Rain (in) | 3.5 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.3 | 5.6 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.8 |
September is the driest month (3.5 in) and July the warmest (highs of 91 °F). 5.6 inches fall in May, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 91 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Bay →
Bay and its neighbors
Bay has the second most mapped trails of the 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bay | under 1% | 0.1 | 7 | 87% | C |
| Jonesboro | 2% | 0.4 | 12 | 39% | C+ |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Bay
How much of Bay is conserved land?
under 1% of its land, against a typical 1% for an Arkansas town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Bay’s trails?
Bay City Ball Park and Bay-Ben Sheets Memorial Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Is there public land near Bay?
1,056 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Bay or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 15 of them inside the city line.
How much outdoors does Bay have?
Ahead of 28% 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 Bay 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 →