Photo: dougtone (Doug Kerr) · CC BY-SA 2.0

Outdoors in Ancram

Ancram has 733 acres of parks, 528 for every 1,000 residents

24% of Ancram’s land is conserved, about 6,579 acres. The biggest trail networks: Taconic State Park – Rudd Pond Area (2.4 mi), Doodletown Wildlife Management Area (1.2 mi). 13% of residents live within a half mile of a park.

Ahead of 76% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land

24%

6,579 acres · of 42.5 sq mi of land

Trails

21 mi

0.5 per sq mi of land

Park land

733 ac

528 acres per 1,000 residents

Near a park

13%

of residents within ½ mile

Bike routes

1.8 mi

1.8 mi paths

Highest peak

1,345 ft

Fox Hill

Lakes & rivers

What kind of outdoors town is Ancram?

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

Room to roam528 acres of park per 1,000 residents; the typical U.S. town has 13.Land that stays wild24% of the land is conserved; a typical New York town, 5%.History along the way5 places on the National Register.

Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Ancram have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Ancram is ahead of 76% of U.S. towns. Park acres per resident hold the grade up; the share of residents near a park pulls it down.

A⁻

OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Ancram’s overall grade.

Conserved land24% of the land · typical NY town 5% · U.S. 4%A Trails0.5 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (21 mi) · NY 0.4 · U.S. 0.4B Park land528 acres of park per 1,000 residents (733 acres) · NY 31 · U.S. 13A⁺Parks close to home13% of residents within a half mile of a park · NY 70% · U.S. 72%C⁻

All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 76%

LessMore

How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from B 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 Taconic State Park – Rudd Pond Area, with 2.4 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.

Taconic State Park – Rudd Pond Area

Managed by New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

633 acres2.4 mi of trail

Robert Brook Trail

Dog rules not recorded

Directionsto the parking lotWebsite ↗

Doodletown Wildlife Management Area

Managed by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

699 acres1.2 mi of trail

Dog rules not recorded

Directionsto the parking lotWebsite ↗

Harlem Valley Rail Trail

Park

4 acres

Dog rules not recorded

Directionsto Harlem Valley Rail TrailWebsite ↗

Who protects it

6,579 conserved acres

24% of Ancram’s land. Who manages Ancram’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

Land trusts & nonprofits9,795 ac

State parks723 ac

State conservation699 ac

USDA easements (NRCS)12 ac

Town or city3 ac

Agricultural Easement · 6,097 acPrivate Conservation · 2,225 acConservation Easement · 858 acState Park · 723 acState Resource Management Area · 699 ac

Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 3,145 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. Public access isn’t recorded for 1 of 59 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels

Parcel (PAD-US)	Managed by	Acres	Public access
Columbia Land Conservancy Land Private Conservation	Land trusts & nonprofits	2,008	Closed
Taconic State Park State Park	State parks	723	Open
Doodletown Wildlife Management Area State Resource Management Area	State conservation	699	Open
Drowned Lands Swamp Conservation Area Private Conservation	Land trusts & nonprofits	110	Closed
Round Ball Mountain Conservation Area Private Conservation	Land trusts & nonprofits	107	Closed
Town Of Ancram Land Local Park	Town or city	3	Unknown

Things to do

12 places to go in Ancram

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

Peaks in Ancram

Fox Hill1,345 ft elevation

Directions

Round Ball Mountain1,316 ft elevation

Directions

Smith Hill984 ft elevation

Directions

Old Croken823 ft elevation

Directions

Bob's Hill

Directions

Trails & water

25 named trails and 4 lakes & rivers

Named trails

Horses · 7.0 miUnpaved · 14.0 mi

Kite Hill - Fox Hill2.1 mi

Charcoal Loop Trail1.5 mi

Kite Hill - Round Ball1.4 mi

Guest Fence Trail1.0 mi

Kestel Trail0.9 mi

Robert Brook Trail0.9 mi

Bob's Hill Upper Field0.8 mi

Bobcat Trail0.7 mi

Lower Wilcox0.7 mi

Bobolink Trail0.7 mi

15 more trails

Main Woods Trail

0.7 mi

Gential Hill Loop

0.7 mi

Bob's Hill Lower Field

0.6 mi

Bench-In-The Middle-Of-Nowhere

0.6 mi

Upper Wilcox

0.6 mi

Pond Trail

0.6 mi

Alander Brook Trail

0.5 mi

Summit Trail

0.4 mi

Sugar Mountain Trail

0.4 mi

To the Pond

0.4 mi

Wetlands Trail

0.3 mi

Bob's Hill Main Trail

0.3 mi

Silo Field Loop

0.3 mi

To the Jump Field

0.3 mi

Shortcut Trail

0.1 mi

Lakes & rivers tap for directions

Dewitt Pond Long Pond Lower Rhoda Pond Roeliff Jansen Kill

Biking & sports

1.8 miles of bike routes

Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.

1.8 mi

off-road bike paths

Courts & fields

1Tennis

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

History along the way

5 places on the National Register

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

History →

Simons General StoreBuilding · listed 1973

About it

St. John's Lutheran ChurchBuilding · listed 2009

About it

Silvernail HomesteadBuilding · listed 2010

About it

Ancram Hamlet Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2017

About it

Ancramdale Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2019

About it

When to get out

The best walking months in Ancram: April, May and August

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)	9.4	10.5	11.8	13.3	14.5	15.2	14.9	13.9	12.4	11.0	9.7	9.1
High (°F)	34	37	46	59	70	78	83	81	73	61	49	39
Rain (in)	3.0	2.4	3.2	3.3	3.7	4.5	4.3	4.1	4.6	4.3	3.2	3.6

February is the driest month (2.4 in) and July the warmest (highs of 83 °F). 4.6 inches fall in September, the wettest month. The climate in Ancram →

Next door

Ancram and its neighbors

Tap a town to see its outdoors.

North East21 mi Copake21 mi Ancram21 mi Pine Plains13 mi Gallatin9.3 mi Taghkanic6.7 mi

Town	Conserved of land	Trail mi per sq mi	Park acres per 1,000	Near a park ½ mile	Outdoors
Ancram	24%	0.5	528	13%	A⁻
Gallatin	11%	0.2	627	9%	B
North East	15%	0.5	942	69%	A
Copake	19%	0.5	1,041	41%	A⁻
Pine Plains	8%	0.4	415	47%	A⁻
Taghkanic	12%	0.2	1,168	30%	B⁺

The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.

Questions about parks and trails in Ancram

Where can I hike in Ancram?

The longest trail networks: Taconic State Park – Rudd Pond Area, 2.4 miles; Doodletown Wildlife Management Area, 1.2 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.

How much of Ancram is conserved land?

24% of its land, against a typical 5% for a New York town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Are dogs allowed on Ancram’s trails?

Taconic State Park – Rudd Pond Area and Doodletown Wildlife Management Area don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Where can I bike in Ancram?

1.8 miles of bike routes are on the map: 1.8 of off-road paths.

Is there public land near Ancram?

32,518 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Ancram or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 1,436 of them inside the town line.

How much outdoors does Ancram have?

Ahead of 76% 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 Ancram 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 →

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Ancram has 733 acres of parks, 528 for every 1,000 residents

What kind of outdoors town is Ancram?

How much outdoors does Ancram have?

Conserved land, trails & bike routes

Pick a walk

Taconic State Park – Rudd Pond Area

Doodletown Wildlife Management Area

Harlem Valley Rail Trail

6,579 conserved acres

12 places to go in Ancram

25 named trails and 4 lakes & rivers

1.8 miles of bike routes

5 places on the National Register

The best walking months in Ancram: April, May and August

Ancram and its neighbors

Questions about parks and trails in Ancram

Trail talk

Where this page comes from