Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge
Nature preserve
98 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Photo: Roastedbeanz1 · CC BY 4.0C−Outdoors
Outdoors in Gulf Hills
27% of Gulf Hills’ land is conserved: 1,326 acres
OpenStreetMap doesn’t show named parks or mapped trails in Gulf Hills yet. Know a trail or a town park? Anyone can add it to OpenStreetMap, and it shows up here on the next refresh.
Ahead of 16% of U.S. towns · #83 of 101 in Mississippi. What drives it
Conserved land
27%
1,326 acres · of 7.7 sq mi of land
Trails
0.0 mi
0.0 per sq mi of land
Near a park
under 1%
of residents within ½ mile
Lakes & rivers
2
1 boat launch
What kind of outdoors town is Gulf Hills?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Gulf Hills have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Gulf Hills is ahead of 16% of U.S. towns, #83 of 101 in Mississippi. Conserved land holds the grade up; the share of residents near a park pulls it down.
C−
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Gulf Hills’ overall grade.
Conserved land27% of the land · typical MS town 2% · U.S. 4%ATrails0.0 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (0 mi) · MS 0.1 · U.S. 0.4DPark land0.0 acres of park per 1,000 residents (0 acres) · MS 8 · U.S. 13DParks close to home0% of residents within a half mile of a park · MS 46% · U.S. 72%D−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 16%
LessMore
Mississippi towns of 2,500+ (101)Ahead of 18%
Few Mississippi towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Gulf Hills’ 27% is ahead of 99% of Mississippi towns, while its trails per square mile lead 6% of them.
Water is 6% of Gulf Hills’ area (0 of 8 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read 25%.
NoteFew parks or trails are mapped in Gulf Hills. 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 D− to C. 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.
Who protects it
1,326 conserved acres
27% of Gulf Hills’ land. Water is left out: Gulf Hills has 7.7 square miles of land and 0.5 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Gulf Hills’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Other state land637 ac
State land board586 ac
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service209 ac
State Conservation Area · 637 acState Resource Management Area · 586 acNational Wildlife Refuge · 209 ac
The biggest protected parcels
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Fort Bayou Coastal Reserve State Conservation Area | Other state land | 637 | Restricted |
| Mississippi 16th Section Public School Trust Lands State Resource Management Area | State land board | 586 | Open |
| Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge National Wildlife Refuge | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | 209 | Restricted |
Things to do
1 places to go in Gulf Hills
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
Boat launches in Gulf Hills
1 boat launch without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see it.
Trails & water
2 lakes & rivers
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
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
11Baseball
8Tennis
1Football
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
When to get out
The best walking months in Gulf Hills: April and May
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) | 10.4 | 11.1 | 11.9 | 12.9 | 13.7 | 14.1 | 13.9 | 13.2 | 12.3 | 11.4 | 10.6 | 10.2 |
| High (°F) | 60 | 63 | 69 | 75 | 82 | 88 | 89 | 89 | 86 | 79 | 69 | 62 |
| Rain (in) | 5.6 | 4.2 | 5.4 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 6.7 | 7.8 | 7.0 | 5.8 | 3.9 | 4.0 | 5.0 |
October is the driest month (3.9 in) and August the warmest (highs of 89 °F). 7.8 inches fall in July, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 89 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Gulf Hills →
Next door
Gulf Hills and its neighbors
Gulf Hills 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gulf Hills | 27% | under 0.1 | under 1 | under 1% | C− |
| Ocean Springs | 14% | 0.5 | 24 | 88% | A− |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Gulf Hills
How much of Gulf Hills is conserved land?
27% of its land, against a typical 2% for a Mississippi town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Gulf Hills’ trails?
Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge doesn’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Is there public land near Gulf Hills?
17,739 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Gulf Hills or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), almost none of it inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Gulf Hills have?
Ahead of 16% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #83 of 101 in Mississippi. 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 Gulf Hills 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 →