Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Mount Carroll

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
Downtown Market Street MG 8152Photo: PeteBobb · CC BY-SA 3.0
C+Outdoors
Outdoors in Mount Carroll

96% of residents live within a half mile of a park in Mount Carroll

29 acres are parks and preserves, 19 per 1,000 residents.

Ahead of 37% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land
under 1%
5 acres · of 2.0 sq mi of land
Trails
0.0 mi
0.0 per sq mi of land
Park land
29 ac
19 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
96%
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
0.1 mi
0.1 mi paths
Lakes & rivers
1

What kind of outdoors town is Mount Carroll?

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

Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Mount Carroll have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Mount Carroll is ahead of 37% 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 Mount Carroll’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 37%
LessMore
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B. 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.

12
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.

Point Rock Park

Park
25 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet

Stone House Memorial Park

Park
1 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the parking lot
Who protects it

5 conserved acres

under 1% of Mount Carroll’s land. Who manages Mount Carroll’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

Town or city5 ac
Local Park · 5 ac
The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
Point Rock Park
Local Park
Town or city5Open
Things to do

1 places to go in Mount Carroll

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

Playgrounds in Mount Carroll

1 playground without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see it.

Trails & water

1 lakes & rivers

Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Biking & sports

0.1 miles of bike routes

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

0.1 mi
off-road bike paths
History along the way

4 places on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service). The map also marks 2 historic points from OpenStreetMap: plaques, memorials and old buildings.

History →
Carroll County CourthouseBuilding · listed 1973
About it
Nathaniel Halderman HouseBuilding · listed 1980
About it
Mount Carroll Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1980
About it
Caroline Mark HouseBuilding · listed 1983
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in Mount Carroll: 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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)9.410.511.813.314.615.215.013.912.411.09.79.1
High (°F)293447607281848275634734
Rain (in)1.51.72.43.74.35.34.54.03.62.92.41.9

January is the driest month (1.5 in) and July the warmest (highs of 84 °F). 5.3 inches fall in June, the wettest month. The climate in Mount Carroll →

Next door

Mount Carroll and its neighbors

Tap a town to see its outdoors.

TownConserved
of land
Trail mi
per sq mi
Park acres
per 1,000
Near a park
½ mile
Outdoors
Mount Carrollunder 1%under 0.11996%C+
Mount Carroll Township1%under 0.11572%C
Salem Township— not graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town
Freedom Township— not graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.

Questions about parks and trails in Mount Carroll

How much of Mount Carroll is conserved land?

under 1% of its land, against a typical 4% for an Illinois town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Are dogs allowed on Mount Carroll’s trails?

Point Rock Park and Stone House Memorial Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Where can I bike in Mount Carroll?

0.1 miles of bike routes are on the map: 0.1 of off-road paths.

Is there public land near Mount Carroll?

7,936 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Mount Carroll or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 29 of them inside the city line.

How much outdoors does Mount Carroll have?

Ahead of 37% 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 Mount Carroll 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 →