Photo: User:Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0

Outdoors in Franklin

12% of Franklin’s land is conserved: 2,834 acres

4% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 1 acre is park or preserve, 0.3 per 1,000 residents. 11 miles of mapped trail cross Franklin, 0.3 per square mile of land.

Ahead of 30% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land

12%

2,834 acres · of 36.5 sq mi of land

Trails

11 mi

0.3 per sq mi of land

Park land

1 ac

0.3 acres per 1,000 residents

Near a park

of residents within ½ mile

Bike routes

8.5 mi

8.5 mi paths

Highest peak

564 ft

Hardwood Hill

Lakes & rivers

2 boat launches

What kind of outdoors town is Franklin?

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

Land that stays wild12% of the land is conserved; a typical Maine town, 6%.

Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Franklin have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Franklin is ahead of 30% of U.S. towns. Conserved land holds the grade up; the share of residents near a park pulls it down.

OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Franklin’s overall grade.

Conserved land12% of the land · typical ME town 6% · U.S. 4%A⁻Trails0.3 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (11 mi) · ME 0.7 · U.S. 0.4B⁻Park land0.3 acres of park per 1,000 residents (1 acre) · ME 15 · U.S. 13D Parks close to home4% of residents within a half mile of a park · ME 30% · U.S. 72%D

All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 30%

LessMore

Water is 12% of Franklin’s area (5 of 41 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read 11%.

How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from D 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 Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land, with 0.2 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.

Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land

Nature preserve

1,231 acres0.2 mi of trail

Schoodic Mountain Trail

Dog rules not recorded

Directionsto the parking lot

Lyle Frost Wildlife Management Area

Managed by Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

415 acres

Dog rules not recorded

No trailhead mapped yet

Abraham's Woods Preserve

Managed by Frenchman Bay Conservancy

28 acres

Dog rules not recorded

No trailhead mapped yet

Egypt Bay Wildlife Management Area

Managed by Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

2 acres

Dog rules not recorded

No trailhead mapped yet

All 6 parks & preserves

Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land1,231 acres · 0.2 mi of trail

Directions

Lyle Frost Wildlife Management Area415 acres · Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

Abraham's Woods Preserve28 acres · Frenchman Bay Conservancy

Egypt Bay Wildlife Management Area2 acres · Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

Frenchman Bay Community Forest1 acres · New England Forestry Foundation

Franklin Memorial Park1 acres

Who protects it

2,834 conserved acres

12% of Franklin’s land. Water is left out: Franklin has 36.5 square miles of land and 5.0 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Franklin’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

Land trusts & nonprofits1,601 ac

State parks1,407 ac

Other or Unknown Local Government1,155 ac

State fish & wildlife725 ac

Other state land122 ac

Unknown Easement · 2,181 acLocal Other or Unknown · 1,169 acConservation Easement · 999 acState Conservation Area · 424 acState Other or Unknown · 122 ac

Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 1,070 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. Public access isn’t recorded for 22 of 43 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels

Parcel (PAD-US)	Managed by	Acres	Public access
Donnell Pond Local Other or Unknown	State parks	1,169	Closed
Lyle Frost (Scammon Marsh) Wildlife Management Area State Conservation Area	State fish & wildlife	421	Restricted
Downeast Sunrise Trail State Other or Unknown	Other state land	122	Restricted
Abrahams Woods Private Other or Unknown	Land trusts & nonprofits	25	Unknown
Spring Point Private Other or Unknown	Land trusts & nonprofits	17	Unknown
Spring River Preserve Private Conservation	Land trusts & nonprofits	16	Unknown
Donnel Pond State Resource Management Area	State parks	3	Open
Egypt Bay Wildlife Management Area State Conservation Area	State fish & wildlife	2	Closed

Things to do

8 places to go in Franklin

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

Peaks in Franklin

Hardwood Hill564 ft elevation

Directions

Fiery Mountain466 ft elevation · In Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land

Directions

Duck Pond Hill459 ft elevation

Directions

Little Hardwood Hill453 ft elevation

Directions

Bailey Mountain262 ft elevation

Directions

Pine Knoll187 ft elevation

Directions

Trails & water

1 named trail and 12 lakes & rivers

Named trails

Schoodic Mountain Trail0.2 mi

Lakes & rivers tap for directions

Duck Pondpond Georges Pond Great Pondlake Little Pond Alder Brook Card Mill Stream Egypt Stream Johnnys Brook Mill Brook Old Meadow Brook Springer Creek West Brook

Biking & sports

8.5 miles of bike routes

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

8.5 mi

off-road bike paths

Courts & fields

1Baseball

Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.

History along the way

1 place on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).

History →

Robertson Quarry GalamanderStructure · listed 1992

About it

When to get out

The best walking months in Franklin: May to 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.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Daylight (h)	9.2	10.4	11.8	13.4	14.8	15.5	15.2	14.0	12.4	10.9	9.5	8.8
High (°F)	30	32	40	52	63	72	78	77	69	56	46	36
Rain (in)	4.0	3.2	4.0	4.2	3.8	4.1	3.3	3.2	3.9	5.4	4.9	5.0

August is the driest month (3.2 in) and July the warmest (highs of 78 °F). 5.4 inches fall in October, the wettest month. The climate in Franklin →

Next door

Franklin and its neighbors

Tap a town to see its outdoors.

Hancock21 mi Sullivan16 mi Franklin11 mi

Town	Conserved of land	Trail mi per sq mi	Park acres per 1,000	Near a park ½ mile	Outdoors
Franklin	12%	0.3	under 1	4%	C
Hancock	18%	0.7	13	14%	B
Sullivan	17%	0.6	37	13%	B⁺

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

Questions about parks and trails in Franklin

Where can I hike in Franklin?

The longest trail networks: Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land, 0.2 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.

How much of Franklin is conserved land?

12% of its land, against a typical 6% for a Maine town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Are dogs allowed on Franklin’s trails?

Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land and Lyle Frost Wildlife Management Area don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Where can I bike in Franklin?

8.5 miles of bike routes are on the map: 8.5 of off-road paths.

Is there public land near Franklin?

8,968 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Franklin or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), almost none of it inside the town line.

How much outdoors does Franklin have?

Ahead of 30% 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 Franklin 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 →

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12% of Franklin’s land is conserved: 2,834 acres

What kind of outdoors town is Franklin?

How much outdoors does Franklin have?

Conserved land, trails & bike routes

Pick a walk

Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land

Lyle Frost Wildlife Management Area

Abraham's Woods Preserve

Egypt Bay Wildlife Management Area

2,834 conserved acres

8 places to go in Franklin

1 named trail and 12 lakes & rivers

8.5 miles of bike routes

1 place on the National Register

The best walking months in Franklin: May to September

Franklin and its neighbors

Questions about parks and trails in Franklin

Trail talk

Where this page comes from