Photo: Greg L. Wright - SnapJag · CC BY-SA 3.0Sun Valley has 26 miles of mapped trails, 2.7 for every square mile of land
1 acre is park or preserve, 0.6 per 1,000 residents. 12% of residents live within a half mile of a park.
Ahead of 30% of U.S. towns. What drives it
What kind of outdoors town is Sun Valley?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
How much outdoors does Sun Valley have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Sun Valley is ahead of 30% of U.S. towns. Trail miles hold the grade up; park acres per resident pull it down.
Few Idaho towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Sun Valley’s 1% is ahead of 15% of Idaho towns, while its trails per square mile lead 93% 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.
47 conserved acres
1% of Sun Valley’s land. Who manages Sun Valley’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 4 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. The walks above are places people visit.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shoshone Field Office National Public Lands | Bureau of Land Management | 23 | Open |
| Independence Creek Preserve Private Recreation or Education | Land trusts & nonprofits | 15 | Closed |
| Sawtooth National Forest National Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 4 | Open |
| One Acre On Top Of Dollar Mountain Private Conservation | Land trusts & nonprofits | 2 | Closed |
7 places to go in Sun Valley
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
6 named trails and 1 lakes & rivers
11 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.
1 place on the National Register
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service). The map also marks 1 historic points from OpenStreetMap: plaques, memorials and old buildings.
The best walking months in Sun Valley: May to 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) | 9.3 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.7 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 14.0 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 8.9 |
| High (°F) | 32 | 36 | 44 | 53 | 63 | 72 | 83 | 81 | 71 | 57 | 41 | 31 |
| Rain (in) | 2.0 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 1.9 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 2.6 |
August is the driest month (0.5 in) and July the warmest (highs of 83 °F). 2.6 inches fall in December, the wettest month. The climate in Sun Valley →
Sun Valley and its neighbors
Sun Valley has the 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Valley | 1% | 2.7 | 1 | 12% | C |
| Ketchum | 10% | 1.3 | 6 | 73% | B+ |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Sun Valley
How much of Sun Valley is conserved land?
1% of its land, against a typical 2% for an Idaho town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Where can I bike in Sun Valley?
11 miles of bike routes are on the map: 11 of off-road paths.
Is there public land near Sun Valley?
77,925 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Sun Valley or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 27 of them inside the city line.
How much outdoors does Sun Valley have?
Ahead of 30% 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 Sun Valley 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 →