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Sumner IA, October 2013Photo: Orange Suede Sofa · CC BY-SA 3.0
COutdoors
Outdoors in Sumner

Sumner has 37 acres of parks, 17 for every 1,000 residents

93% of residents live within a half mile of a park.

Ahead of 29% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land
under 1%
0 acres · of 2.5 sq mi of land
Trails
0.0 mi
0.0 per sq mi of land
Park land
37 ac
17 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
93%
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
1.7 mi
1.7 mi paths

What kind of outdoors town is Sumner?

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

Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Sumner have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Sumner is ahead of 29% of U.S. towns. The share of residents near a park holds the grade up; trail miles pull it down.

C
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Sumner’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 29%
LessMore
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C+. 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

Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.

Sumner City Park

Park
19 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet

Cub Park

Park
9 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet

Sumner Family Aquatic Park

Park
4 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the parking lot

Cub Park U12 Soccer Field

Park
2 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
All 6 parks & preserves
Sumner City Park19 acres
Cub Park9 acres
Sumner Family Aquatic Park4 acres
Directions
Cub Park U12 Soccer Field2 acres
Water Tower Park1 acres
Directions
Veteran's Park1 acres
Things to do

2 places to go in Sumner

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

Public pools in Sumner
Sumner Municipal PoolIn Sumner Family Aquatic Park
Directions
Biking & sports

1.7 miles of bike routes

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

1.7 mi
off-road bike paths
Courts & fields
5Baseball
1Softball
1Football

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

History along the way

2 places on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).

History →
Sumner High SchoolBuilding · listed 2004
About it
Bank of SumnerBuilding · listed 2004
About it
When to get out

The walking year in Sumner

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)9.410.511.813.314.615.315.013.912.411.09.79.0
High (°F)252943587079828074604431
Rain (in)1.11.22.03.94.86.04.94.23.82.81.91.5

January is the driest month (1.1 in) and July the warmest (highs of 82 °F). 6.0 inches fall in June, the wettest month. The climate in Sumner →

Questions about parks and trails in Sumner

How much of Sumner 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 Sumner’s trails?

Sumner City Park and Cub Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Where can I bike in Sumner?

1.7 miles of bike routes are on the map: 1.7 of off-road paths.

Is there public land near Sumner?

5,522 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Sumner or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 37 of them inside the city line.

How much outdoors does Sumner have?

Ahead of 29% 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 Sumner 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 →