Perry Lake Recreation Area
Managed by United States Army Corps of Engineers
96 acres0.6 mi of trail
Doodlebug Walking Trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
C+Outdoors
Outdoors in Valley Falls
23% of Valley Falls’ land is conserved: 106 acres
0.6 miles of mapped trail cross Valley Falls, 0.9 per square mile of land. The biggest trail networks: Perry Lake Recreation Area (0.6 mi).
Ahead of 39% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Conserved land
23%
106 acres · of 0.7 sq mi of land
Trails
0.6 mi
0.9 per sq mi of land
Near a park
under 1%
of residents within ½ mile
What kind of outdoors town is Valley Falls?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Valley Falls have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Valley Falls is ahead of 39% of U.S. towns. Conserved land holds the grade up; the share of residents near a park pulls it down.
C+
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Valley Falls’ overall grade.
Conserved land23% of the land · typical KS town 2% · U.S. 4%ATrails0.9 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (1 mi) · KS 0.2 · U.S. 0.4A−Park land0.0 acres of park per 1,000 residents (0 acres) · KS 13 · U.S. 13DParks close to home0% of residents within a half mile of a park · KS 76% · U.S. 72%D−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 39%
LessMore
Few Kansas towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Valley Falls’ 23% is ahead of 99% of Kansas towns, while its trails per square mile lead 83% of them.
NoteFew parks or trails are mapped in Valley Falls. OpenStreetMap is mapped by volunteers and coverage varies from town to town, so a town with unmapped parks scores low on them.
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
The longest trail network is Perry Lake Recreation Area, with 0.6 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Who protects it
106 conserved acres
23% of Valley Falls’ land. Who manages Valley Falls’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Army Corps of Engineers106 ac
Recreation Management Area · 106 ac
The biggest protected parcels
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perry Recreation Area Recreation Management Area | Army Corps of Engineers | 106 | Open |
Things to do
2 places to go in Valley Falls
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
Public pools in Valley Falls
Kendall Pool
DirectionsBoat launches in Valley Falls
1 boat launch without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see it.
Trails & water
1 named trail
Named trails
Unpaved · 0.6 mi
Doodlebug Walking Trail0.6 mi
Biking & sports
0.0 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Courts & fields
2Baseball
1Football
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
When to get out
The walking year in Valley Falls
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) | 9.7 | 10.7 | 11.8 | 13.2 | 14.3 | 14.9 | 14.7 | 13.7 | 12.4 | 11.1 | 10.0 | 9.4 |
| High (°F) | 38 | 44 | 56 | 66 | 76 | 85 | 89 | 88 | 80 | 68 | 54 | 42 |
| Rain (in) | 0.8 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 3.7 | 5.1 | 4.9 | 4.6 | 4.2 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 1.9 | 1.4 |
January is the driest month (0.8 in) and July the warmest (highs of 89 °F). 5.1 inches fall in May, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 89 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Valley Falls →
Questions about parks and trails in Valley Falls
Where can I hike in Valley Falls?
The longest trail networks: Perry Lake Recreation Area, 0.6 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.
How much of Valley Falls is conserved land?
23% 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.
Are dogs allowed on Valley Falls’ trails?
Perry Lake Recreation Area doesn’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Is there public land near Valley Falls?
18,201 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Valley Falls or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 106 of them inside the city line.
How much outdoors does Valley Falls have?
Ahead of 39% 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 Valley Falls 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 →