Photo: Natalie Maynor · CC BY 2.0Few parks or trails are on the map in Raleigh
1.4 miles of mapped trail cross Raleigh, 0.3 per square mile of land.
Ahead of 9% of U.S. towns. What drives it
How much outdoors does Raleigh have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Raleigh is ahead of 9% of U.S. towns. All four inputs are below most U.S. towns; trail miles come closest.
Few Mississippi towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Raleigh’s under 1% is ahead of 17% of Mississippi towns, while its trails per square mile lead 78% 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.
11 conserved acres
under 1% of Raleigh’s land. Who manages Raleigh’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bienville National Forest National Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 11 | Open |
1 places to go in Raleigh
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.
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.
The best walking months in Raleigh: 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) | 10.3 | 11.0 | 11.9 | 12.9 | 13.8 | 14.2 | 14.0 | 13.3 | 12.3 | 11.3 | 10.5 | 10.1 |
| High (°F) | 58 | 63 | 70 | 77 | 84 | 89 | 92 | 91 | 87 | 78 | 68 | 60 |
| Rain (in) | 5.7 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 4.1 | 5.0 | 5.2 | 4.7 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 4.4 | 5.5 |
October is the driest month (3.7 in) and July the warmest (highs of 92 °F). 5.8 inches fall in April, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 92 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Raleigh →
Questions about parks and trails in Raleigh
How much of Raleigh is conserved land?
under 1% 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.
Is there public land near Raleigh?
48,374 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Raleigh or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 11 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Raleigh 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 Raleigh 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 →