Carpenter Park
Park
12 acres0.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Photo: Daniel Case · CC BY-SA 3.0B+Outdoors
Outdoors in Chester
8% of Chester’s land is conserved: 108 acres
94% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 1.4 miles of mapped trail cross Chester, 0.7 per square mile of land. 37 acres are parks and preserves, 9.3 per 1,000 residents.
Ahead of 74% of U.S. towns · #302 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Conserved land
8%
108 acres · of 2.1 sq mi of land
Trails
1.4 mi
0.7 per sq mi of land
Park land
37 ac
9.3 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
94%
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
1.3 mi
1.3 mi paths
What kind of outdoors town is Chester?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Chester have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Chester is ahead of 74% of U.S. towns, #302 of 758 in New York. The share of residents near a park holds the grade up; park acres per resident pull it down.
B+
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Chester’s overall grade.
Conserved land8% of the land · typical NY town 5% · U.S. 4%B+Trails0.7 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (1 mi) · NY 0.4 · U.S. 0.4B+Park land9.3 acres of park per 1,000 residents (37 acres) · NY 31 · U.S. 13C+Parks close to home94% of residents within a half mile of a park · NY 70% · U.S. 72%A−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 74%
LessMore
New York towns of 2,500+ (758)Ahead of 60%
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 Carpenter Park, with 0.1 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Who protects it
108 conserved acres
8% of Chester’s land. Who manages Chester’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Land trusts & nonprofits143 ac
USDA easements (NRCS)70 ac
Town or city32 ac
County27 ac
Agricultural Easement · 141 acConservation Easement · 72 acLocal Recreation Area · 30 acLocal Park · 27 acLocal Resource Management Area · 1 ac
Good to know
Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 71 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. Public access isn’t recorded for 2 of 8 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.
The biggest protected parcels
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carpenter Park Local Recreation Area | Town or city | 16 | Open |
| Town Of Chester Land Local Park | Town or city | 16 | Unknown |
| Heritage Trail Local Recreation Area | County | 14 | Open |
| County Of Orange Land Local Park | County | 11 | Unknown |
| Orange County Lands Local Resource Management Area | County | 1 | Open |
Things to do
4 places to go in Chester
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
Playgrounds in Chester
4 playgrounds without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.
Trails & water
1 named trail
Named trails
Lutjens Alley0.1 mi
Biking & sports
1.3 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
1.3 mi
off-road bike paths
Courts & fields
5Baseball
4Tennis
4Basketball
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
When to get out
The best walking months in Chester: April, May, July 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) | 9.5 | 10.6 | 11.8 | 13.3 | 14.5 | 15.1 | 14.9 | 13.8 | 12.4 | 11.0 | 9.8 | 9.2 |
| High (°F) | 35 | 38 | 47 | 60 | 70 | 79 | 84 | 82 | 74 | 63 | 51 | 40 |
| Rain (in) | 3.1 | 2.6 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 4.6 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 3.3 | 3.7 |
February is the driest month (2.6 in) and July the warmest (highs of 84 °F). 4.6 inches fall in June, the wettest month. The climate in Chester →
Next door
Chester and its neighbors
Chester has the second most mapped trails of the 2 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.
| Town | Conserved of land | Trail mi per sq mi | Park acres per 1,000 | Near a park ½ mile | Outdoors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chester | 8% | 0.7 | 9 | 94% | B+ |
| Goshen | 2% | 0.9 | 40 | 71% | B+ |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Chester
Where can I hike in Chester?
The longest trail networks: Carpenter Park, 0.1 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.
How much of Chester is conserved land?
8% 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 Chester’s trails?
Carpenter Park doesn’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Where can I bike in Chester?
1.3 miles of bike routes are on the map: 1.3 of off-road paths.
Is there public land near Chester?
43,935 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Chester or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 37 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Chester have?
Ahead of 74% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #302 of 758 in New York. 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 Chester 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 →