Photo: Jo Levine · CC BY 2.0Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park in Vale
Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park. 3.7 miles of mapped trail cross Vale, 3.2 per square mile of land. 17 acres are parks and preserves, 7.2 per 1,000 residents.
Ahead of 62% of U.S. towns. What drives it
What kind of outdoors town is Vale?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
How much outdoors does Vale have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Vale is ahead of 62% of U.S. towns. Trail miles hold the grade up; conserved land pulls it down.
PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
Pick a walk
Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Cottonwood City Park
9 places to go in Vale
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
8 playgrounds without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.
1 named trail
0.2 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
5 places on the National Register
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).
The best walking months in Vale: April to June 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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 9.2 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.7 | 15.5 | 15.2 | 14.0 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 8.9 |
| High (°F) | 38 | 46 | 57 | 65 | 75 | 82 | 93 | 92 | 81 | 66 | 49 | 38 |
| Rain (in) | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.3 |
August is the driest month (0.2 in) and July the warmest (highs of 93 °F). 1.3 inches fall in December, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 93 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Vale →
Questions about parks and trails in Vale
How much of Vale is conserved land?
under 1% of its land, against a typical 4% for an Oregon town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Vale’s trails?
Wadleigh City Park and Cottonwood City Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Where can I bike in Vale?
0.2 miles of bike routes are on the map: 0.2 of off-road paths.
Is there public land near Vale?
65,378 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Vale or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 17 of them inside the city line.
How much outdoors does Vale have?
Ahead of 62% 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 Vale neighbors.
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 →