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Downtown Ellendale, North Dakota 6-11-2009Photo: Andrew Filer from Seattle (ex-Minneapolis) · CC BY-SA 2.0
COutdoors
Outdoors in Ellendale

Few parks or trails are on the map in Ellendale

82% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 0.2 miles of mapped trail cross Ellendale, 0.1 per square mile of land. 6 acres are parks and preserves, 5.5 per 1,000 residents.

Ahead of 26% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land
under 1%
0 acres · of 1.4 sq mi of land
Trails
0.2 mi
0.1 per sq mi of land
Park land
6 ac
5.5 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
82%
of residents within ½ mile

What kind of outdoors town is Ellendale?

Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.

Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Ellendale have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Ellendale is ahead of 26% of U.S. towns. The share of residents near a park holds the grade up; conserved land pulls it down.

C
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Ellendale’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 26%
LessMore
NoteFew parks or trails are mapped in Ellendale. 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 C− 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
Things to do

4 places to go in Ellendale

Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.

Playgrounds in Ellendale

3 playgrounds without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.

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
3Football
3Baseball
2Tennis
2Basketball

Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.

History along the way

2 places on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).

History →
Dickey County CourthouseBuilding · listed 1980
About it
Ellendale Opera House BlockBuilding · listed 1992
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in Ellendale: August and September

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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)9.010.311.813.514.915.715.414.112.510.89.48.7
High (°F)202538546777828172563925
Rain (in)0.50.61.01.83.23.93.52.62.32.00.70.6

January is the driest month (0.5 in) and July the warmest (highs of 82 °F). 3.9 inches fall in June, the wettest month. The climate in Ellendale →

Questions about parks and trails in Ellendale

How much of Ellendale is conserved land?

under 1% of its land, against a typical 3% for a North Dakota town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Is there public land near Ellendale?

967 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Ellendale or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 6 of them inside the city line.

How much outdoors does Ellendale have?

Ahead of 26% 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 Ellendale neighbors.

Town Square →
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 →