Jim Yellig Park
Managed by Town of Santa Claus
41 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the parking lot
C+Outdoors
Outdoors in Santa Claus
Santa Claus has 9.0 miles of mapped trails, 1.4 for every square mile of land
13% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 41 acres are parks and preserves, 15 per 1,000 residents.
Ahead of 39% of U.S. towns · #279 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
Conserved land
under 1%
3 acres · of 6.5 sq mi of land
Trails
9.0 mi
1.4 per sq mi of land
Park land
41 ac
15 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
13%
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
5.6 mi
5.6 mi paths
Lakes & rivers
4
What kind of outdoors town is Santa Claus?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Santa Claus have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Santa Claus is ahead of 39% of U.S. towns, #279 of 593 in Indiana. Trail miles hold the grade up; conserved land pulls it down.
C+
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Santa Claus’ overall grade.
Conserved landunder 1% of the land · typical IN town 2% · U.S. 4%C−Trails1.4 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (9 mi) · IN 0.1 · U.S. 0.4APark land15 acres of park per 1,000 residents (41 acres) · IN 10 · U.S. 13BParks close to home13% of residents within a half mile of a park · IN 51% · U.S. 72%C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 39%
LessMore
Indiana towns of 2,500+ (593)Ahead of 53%
Few Indiana towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Santa Claus’ under 1% is ahead of 17% of Indiana towns, while its trails per square mile lead 97% of them.
Water is 6% of Santa Claus’ area (0 of 7 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 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.
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.
Lincoln State Park
Managed by INDNR
1 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Who protects it
3 conserved acres
under 1% of Santa Claus’ land. Water is left out: Santa Claus has 6.5 square miles of land and 0.4 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Santa Claus’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
State parks3 ac
State Park · 3 ac
The biggest protected parcels
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln State Park State Park | State parks | 3 | Open |
Things to do
6 places to go in Santa Claus
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
Playgrounds in Santa Claus
5 playgrounds without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.
Campgrounds in Santa Claus
Sun Outdoors Lake RudolphFee · Sun Outdoors
DirectionsTrails & water
9 named trails and 4 lakes & rivers
Named trails
Unpaved · 1.2 mi
Pro Super Bowl0.3 mi
Good Friday Boulevard0.3 mi
Saint Patricks Day0.2 mi
County Road 1750 North0.2 mi
Washington Birthday0.2 mi
Lincoln Birthday0.2 mi
Ides of March0.1 mi
Easter Circle0.1 mi
Groundhog Day0.1 mi
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Biking & sports
5.6 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
5.6 mi
off-road bike paths
Courts & fields
3Baseball
3Soccer
2Basketball
1Beach volleyball
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
When to get out
The walking year in Santa Claus
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) | 9.8 | 10.7 | 11.8 | 13.1 | 14.2 | 14.8 | 14.6 | 13.6 | 12.4 | 11.1 | 10.0 | 9.5 |
| High (°F) | 42 | 46 | 56 | 68 | 77 | 85 | 87 | 87 | 81 | 70 | 56 | 46 |
| Rain (in) | 3.6 | 3.4 | 4.7 | 5.2 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 3.0 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 4.1 |
August is the driest month (3.0 in) and July the warmest (highs of 87 °F). 5.5 inches fall in May, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 87 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Santa Claus →
Next door
Santa Claus and its neighbors
Santa Claus has the second most mapped trails of the 4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Claus | under 1% | 1.4 | 15 | 13% | C+ |
| Harrison Township | 1% | under 0.1 | 12 | 22% | C− |
| Clay Township | 8% | 0.6 | 601 | 1% | B+ |
| Carter Township | under 1% | 0.1 | 12 | 65% | C |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Santa Claus
How much of Santa Claus is conserved land?
under 1% of its land, against a typical 2% for an Indiana town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Santa Claus’ trails?
Jim Yellig Park and Lincoln State Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Where can I bike in Santa Claus?
5.6 miles of bike routes are on the map: 5.6 of off-road paths.
Is there public land near Santa Claus?
4,541 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Santa Claus or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 41 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Santa Claus have?
Ahead of 39% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #279 of 593 in Indiana. 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 Santa Claus 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 →