Photo: Paul Sableman · CC BY 2.0Few parks or trails are on the map in Imperial
3 acres are parks and preserves, 0.5 per 1,000 residents. 0.1 miles of mapped trail cross Imperial. 41% of residents live within a half mile of a park.
Ahead of 8% of U.S. towns · #237 of 247 in Missouri. What drives it
How much outdoors does Imperial have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Imperial is ahead of 8% of U.S. towns, #237 of 247 in Missouri. All four inputs are below most U.S. towns; the share of residents near a park comes closest.
Few Missouri towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Imperial’s under 1% is ahead of 4% of Missouri towns, while its trails per square mile lead 13% of them.
Water is 13% of Imperial’s area (1 of 6 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read under 1%.
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.
1 conserved acres
under 1% of Imperial’s land. Water is left out: Imperial has 5.2 square miles of land and 0.8 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Imperial’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kimmswick Open Space Local Park | Town or city | 1 | Open |
1 places to go in Imperial
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
1 playground without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see it.
1 lakes & rivers
0.0 miles of bike routes
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.
1 place on the National Register
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).
The walking year in Imperial
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 | 14.6 | 13.6 | 12.4 | 11.1 | 10.0 | 9.5 |
| High (°F) | 41 | 47 | 57 | 68 | 77 | 85 | 89 | 88 | 81 | 70 | 56 | 45 |
| Rain (in) | 2.6 | 2.4 | 3.6 | 4.8 | 5.1 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 2.8 |
February is the driest month (2.4 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 Imperial →
Imperial and its neighbors
Imperial 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imperial | under 1% | under 0.1 | under 1 | 41% | D |
| Arnold | 10% | 0.6 | 40 | 70% | A− |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Imperial
How much of Imperial is conserved land?
under 1% of its land, against a typical 2% for a Missouri town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Is there public land near Imperial?
6,262 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Imperial or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 3 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Imperial have?
Ahead of 8% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #237 of 247 in Missouri. 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 Imperial 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 →