Photo: Kybluegrass · CC BY-SA 3.0Few parks or trails are on the map in Stearns
5% of Stearns’ land is conserved, about 127 acres.
Ahead of 9% of U.S. towns. What drives it
How much outdoors does Stearns have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Stearns is ahead of 9% of U.S. towns. Conserved land holds the grade up; the share of residents near a park pulls it down.
Few Kentucky towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Stearns’ 5% is ahead of 87% of Kentucky towns, while its trails per square mile lead 8% 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.
127 conserved acres
5% of Stearns’ land. Who manages Stearns’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel Boone National Forest National Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 127 | Open |
1 places to go in Stearns
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
2 places on the National Register
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).
The best walking months in Stearns: April to June and August
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) | 9.9 | 10.8 | 11.9 | 13.1 | 14.1 | 14.7 | 14.4 | 13.5 | 12.4 | 11.2 | 10.2 | 9.7 |
| High (°F) | 44 | 49 | 58 | 68 | 76 | 82 | 85 | 84 | 79 | 69 | 57 | 48 |
| Rain (in) | 4.5 | 4.7 | 5.2 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 3.1 | 3.9 | 5.4 |
October is the driest month (3.1 in) and July the warmest (highs of 85 °F). 5.7 inches fall in July, the wettest month. The climate in Stearns →
Stearns and its neighbors
Stearns has the second 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stearns | 5% | under 0.1 | under 1 | under 1% | D |
| Whitley City | — 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 Stearns
How much of Stearns is conserved land?
5% of its land, against a typical 2% for a Kentucky town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Is there public land near Stearns?
128,406 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Stearns or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 127 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Stearns have?
Ahead of 9% 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 Stearns 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 →