Great Meadow Park
Park
7 acres0.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Baldwin's Mill · Photo: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD · CC BY-SA 3.0BOutdoors
Outdoors in Briar Chapel
Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park in Briar Chapel
Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park. 5.7 miles of mapped trail cross Briar Chapel, 2.7 per square mile of land. The biggest trail networks: Great Meadow Park (0.5 mi).
Ahead of 57% of U.S. towns · #79 of 290 in North Carolina. What drives it
Conserved land
under 1%
0 acres · of 2.1 sq mi of land
Trails
5.7 mi
2.7 per sq mi of land
Park land
16 ac
2.7 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
99%+
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
9.6 mi
9.6 mi paths
Lakes & rivers
1
What kind of outdoors town is Briar Chapel?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Briar Chapel have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Briar Chapel is ahead of 57% of U.S. towns, #79 of 290 in North Carolina. Trail miles hold the grade up; conserved land pulls it down.
B
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Briar Chapel’s overall grade.
Conserved landunder 1% of the land · typical NC town 3% · U.S. 4%DTrails2.7 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (6 mi) · NC 0.2 · U.S. 0.4A+Park land2.7 acres of park per 1,000 residents (16 acres) · NC 8 · U.S. 13C−Parks close to homeVirtually all residents within a half mile of a park · NC 51% · U.S. 72%A+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 57%
LessMore
North Carolina towns of 2,500+ (290)Ahead of 73%
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
The longest trail network is Great Meadow Park, with 0.5 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Constellation Park
Park
4 acres0.2 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Briar Chapel Commons
Park
1 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Things to do
4 places to go in Briar Chapel
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
Playgrounds in Briar Chapel
3 playgrounds without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.
Dog parks in Briar Chapel
1 dog park without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see it.
Trails & water
1 lakes & rivers
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Biking & sports
9.6 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
9.6 mi
off-road bike paths
Courts & fields
5Tennis
1Baseball
1Multi-sport
1Beach volleyball
1Soccer
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
When to get out
The best walking months in Briar Chapel: 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) | 10.0 | 10.8 | 11.9 | 13.1 | 14.0 | 14.6 | 14.4 | 13.5 | 12.4 | 11.2 | 10.2 | 9.7 |
| High (°F) | 52 | 55 | 63 | 72 | 79 | 86 | 90 | 88 | 82 | 72 | 62 | 54 |
| Rain (in) | 3.6 | 3.1 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 5.0 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 3.6 |
February is the driest month (3.1 in) and July the warmest (highs of 90 °F). 5.0 inches fall in September, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 90 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Briar Chapel →
Questions about parks and trails in Briar Chapel
Where can I hike in Briar Chapel?
The longest trail networks: Great Meadow Park, 0.5 miles; Constellation Park, 0.2 miles; Boulder Park, 0.1 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.
How much of Briar Chapel is conserved land?
under 1% of its land, against a typical 3% for a North Carolina town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Briar Chapel’s trails?
Great Meadow Park and Constellation Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Where can I bike in Briar Chapel?
9.6 miles of bike routes are on the map: 9.6 of off-road paths.
Is there public land near Briar Chapel?
10,687 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Briar Chapel or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 16 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Briar Chapel have?
Ahead of 57% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #79 of 290 in North Carolina. 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 Briar Chapel 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 →