Chautauqua Park
Park
35 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0BOutdoors
Outdoors in Oakland
Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park in Oakland
Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park. 58 acres are parks and preserves, 41 per 1,000 residents. 0.3 miles of mapped trail cross Oakland, 0.2 per square mile of land.
Ahead of 56% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Conserved land
under 1%
0 acres · of 1.8 sq mi of land
Trails
0.3 mi
0.2 per sq mi of land
Park land
58 ac
41 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
99%+
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
0.9 mi
0.9 mi paths
What kind of outdoors town is Oakland?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Oakland have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Oakland is ahead of 56% of U.S. towns. The share of residents near a park holds the grade up; conserved land pulls it down.
B
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Oakland’s overall grade.
Conserved landunder 1% of the land · typical IA town 3% · U.S. 4%DTrails0.2 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (0 mi) · IA 0.3 · U.S. 0.4C+Park land41 acres of park per 1,000 residents (58 acres) · IA 19 · U.S. 13A−Parks close to homeVirtually all residents within a half mile of a park · IA 91% · U.S. 72%A+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 56%
LessMore
Water is 5% of Oakland’s area (0 of 2 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read under 1%.
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ 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.
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Pick a walk
Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Schueman Park
Park
15 acres0.2 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Biking & sports
0.9 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
0.9 mi
off-road bike paths
Courts & fields
4Baseball
1Beach volleyball
1Basketball
1Football
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
When to get out
The best walking months in Oakland: April and September
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) | 9.5 | 10.6 | 11.8 | 13.3 | 14.5 | 15.1 | 14.9 | 13.8 | 12.4 | 11.0 | 9.8 | 9.2 |
| High (°F) | 31 | 36 | 50 | 62 | 73 | 82 | 85 | 83 | 77 | 64 | 49 | 36 |
| Rain (in) | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 3.6 | 5.2 | 5.3 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 3.4 | 2.8 | 1.6 | 1.3 |
January is the driest month (0.9 in) and July the warmest (highs of 85 °F). 5.3 inches fall in June, the wettest month. The climate in Oakland →
Questions about parks and trails in Oakland
Where can I hike in Oakland?
The longest trail networks: Schueman Park, 0.2 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.
How much of Oakland is conserved land?
under 1% of its land, against a typical 3% for an Iowa town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Oakland’s trails?
Chautauqua Park and Schueman Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Where can I bike in Oakland?
0.9 miles of bike routes are on the map: 0.9 of off-road paths.
Is there public land near Oakland?
563 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Oakland or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 58 of them inside the city line.
How much outdoors does Oakland have?
Ahead of 56% 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 Oakland neighbors.
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 →