Croatan National Forest
Managed by United States Forest Service
89 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the parking lot
DOutdoors
Outdoors in Cherry Branch
12% of Cherry Branch’s land is conserved: 89 acres
OpenStreetMap doesn’t show named parks or mapped trails in Cherry Branch 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 13% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Conserved land
12%
89 acres · of 1.1 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
What kind of outdoors town is Cherry Branch?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Cherry Branch have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Cherry Branch is ahead of 13% of U.S. towns. Conserved land holds the grade up; the share of residents near a park pulls it down.
D
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Cherry Branch’s overall grade.
Conserved land12% of the land · typical NC town 3% · U.S. 4%A−Trails0.0 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (0 mi) · NC 0.2 · U.S. 0.4DPark land0.0 acres of park per 1,000 residents (0 acres) · NC 8 · U.S. 13DParks close to home0% of residents within a half mile of a park · NC 51% · U.S. 72%D−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 13%
LessMore
Water is 31% of Cherry Branch’s area (1 of 2 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read 8%.
NoteFew parks or trails are mapped in Cherry Branch. 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
89 conserved acres
12% of Cherry Branch’s land. Water is left out: Cherry Branch has 1.1 square miles of land and 0.5 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Cherry Branch’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
U.S. Forest Service89 ac
National Forest · 89 ac
The biggest protected parcels
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Croatan National Forest National Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 89 | Open |
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
2Tennis
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
When to get out
The best walking months in Cherry Branch: 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 | 10.9 | 11.9 | 13.0 | 14.0 | 14.5 | 14.3 | 13.5 | 12.3 | 11.2 | 10.3 | 9.8 |
| High (°F) | 56 | 58 | 64 | 72 | 79 | 86 | 89 | 87 | 83 | 75 | 66 | 59 |
| Rain (in) | 4.1 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 3.5 | 4.2 | 4.9 | 6.5 | 7.2 | 7.4 | 4.2 | 3.8 | 4.0 |
April is the driest month (3.5 in) and July the warmest (highs of 89 °F). 7.4 inches fall in September, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 89 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Cherry Branch →
Questions about parks and trails in Cherry Branch
How much of Cherry Branch is conserved land?
12% 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 Cherry Branch’s trails?
Croatan National Forest doesn’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Is there public land near Cherry Branch?
34,444 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Cherry Branch or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 87 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Cherry Branch have?
Ahead of 13% 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 Cherry Branch 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 →