North Shafer City Park
Park
4 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Photo: Lorie Shaull · CC BY 2.0B−Outdoors
Outdoors in Shafer
10% of Shafer’s land is conserved, and virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park
Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park. 10% of Shafer’s land is conserved, about 79 acres. 8 acres are parks and preserves, 6.9 per 1,000 residents.
Ahead of 54% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Conserved land
10%
79 acres · of 1.3 sq mi of land
Trails
0.0 mi
0.0 per sq mi of land
Park land
8 ac
6.9 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
99%+
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
0.9 mi
0.9 mi paths
What kind of outdoors town is Shafer?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Shafer have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Shafer is ahead of 54% of U.S. towns. The share of residents near a park holds the grade up; trail miles pull it down.
B−
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Shafer’s overall grade.
Conserved land10% of the land · typical MN town 5% · U.S. 4%A−Trails0.0 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (0 mi) · MN 0.5 · U.S. 0.4DPark land6.9 acres of park per 1,000 residents (8 acres) · MN 24 · U.S. 13C+Parks close to homeVirtually all residents within a half mile of a park · MN 95% · U.S. 72%A+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 54%
LessMore
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. 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.
Shafer Baseball Field
Park
1 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Buffalo Ridge Park
Park
1 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
All 5 parks & preserves
North Shafer City Park4 acres
Shafer Baseball Field1 acres
Buffalo Ridge Park1 acres
City Park1 acres
DirectionsSwedish Immigrant trailhead park1 acres
DirectionsWho protects it
79 conserved acres
10% of Shafer’s land. Who manages Shafer’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service79 ac
Conservation Easement · 79 ac
Good to know
Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 79 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. The walks above are places people visit.
Things to do
1 places to go in Shafer
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
Playgrounds in Shafer
1 playground without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see it.
Biking & sports
0.9 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
0.9 mi
off-road bike paths
Courts & fields
1Basketball
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
When to get out
The walking year in Shafer
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) | 9.1 | 10.3 | 11.8 | 13.5 | 14.9 | 15.6 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.4 | 8.7 |
| High (°F) | 22 | 28 | 41 | 56 | 68 | 78 | 82 | 80 | 71 | 57 | 41 | 28 |
| Rain (in) | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 2.8 | 4.1 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.1 | 3.3 | 3.0 | 1.7 | 1.2 |
January is the driest month (0.8 in) and July the warmest (highs of 82 °F). 4.4 inches fall in June, the wettest month. The climate in Shafer →
Next door
Shafer and its neighbors
Shafer 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shafer | 10% | under 0.1 | 7 | 99%+ | B− |
| Franconia Township | 9% | 0.3 | 34 | 8% | B− |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Shafer
How much of Shafer is conserved land?
10% of its land, against a typical 5% for a Minnesota town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Shafer’s trails?
North Shafer City Park and Shafer Baseball Field don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Where can I bike in Shafer?
0.9 miles of bike routes are on the map: 0.9 of off-road paths.
Is there public land near Shafer?
10,086 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Shafer or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 8 of them inside the city line.
How much outdoors does Shafer have?
Ahead of 54% 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 Shafer 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 →