Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Thrive Allen County · CC BY-SA 4.0389 acres are parks and preserves, 73 per 1,000 residents. 97% of residents live within a half mile of a park. The biggest trail networks: Lehigh Portland State Park (8.7 mi), Riverside Park (0.6 mi).
Ahead of 90% of U.S. towns · #4 of 151 in Kansas. What drives it
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Iola is ahead of 90% of U.S. towns, #4 of 151 in Kansas. Trail miles hold the grade up; conserved land pulls it down.
Few Kansas towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Iola’s 2% is ahead of 53% of Kansas towns, while its trails per square mile lead 100% of them.
Water is 6% of Iola’s area (0 of 5 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read 2%.
PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
The longest trail network is Lehigh Portland State Park, with 8.7 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
2% of Iola’s land. Water is left out: Iola has 4.6 square miles of land and 0.3 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Iola’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riverside Park Local Park | Town or city | 48 | Open |
| Meadowbrook Park Local Park | Town or city | 8 | Open |
| Cifachique Park Local Park | Town or city | 7 | Open |
| East Iola Park Local Park | Town or city | 4 | Open |
| Happy Trails Dog Park Local Park | Town or city | 1 | Open |
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
3 playgrounds without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.
2 waterfalls without a name on the map.
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.
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service). The map also marks 3 historic points from OpenStreetMap: plaques, memorials and old buildings.
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 | 14.5 | 13.6 | 12.4 | 11.1 | 10.1 | 9.5 |
| High (°F) | 42 | 48 | 58 | 67 | 76 | 85 | 90 | 89 | 81 | 70 | 56 | 45 |
| Rain (in) | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.6 | 4.3 | 5.8 | 5.4 | 4.4 | 4.1 | 4.3 | 3.5 | 2.4 | 1.8 |
January is the driest month (1.2 in) and July the warmest (highs of 90 °F). 5.8 inches fall in May, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 90 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Iola →
Iola has the most mapped trails of the 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iola | 2% | 2.6 | 73 | 97% | A |
| Iola Township | — not graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town | ||||
| Bassett | — 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.
The longest trail networks: Lehigh Portland State Park, 8.7 miles; Riverside Park, 0.6 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.
2% of its land, against a typical 2% for a Kansas town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Lehigh Portland State Park and Riverside Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
9.5 miles of bike routes are on the map: 6.3 of off-road paths and 3.1 of shoulders and shared lanes. Named routes: Lehigh Portland Trails.
506 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Iola or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 389 of them inside the city line.
Ahead of 90% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #4 of 151 in Kansas. 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.
Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Iola neighbors.
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 →