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Park in New BrightonPhoto: Nyttend · Public domain
BOutdoors
Outdoors in New Brighton

Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park in New Brighton

Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park. 19 acres are parks and preserves, 3.5 per 1,000 residents. 0.4 miles of mapped trail cross New Brighton, 0.4 per square mile of land.

Ahead of 55% of U.S. towns · #681 of 1,037 in Pennsylvania. What drives it

Conserved land
3%
17 acres · of 1.0 sq mi of land
Trails
0.4 mi
0.4 per sq mi of land
Park land
19 ac
3.5 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
99%+
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
0.4 mi
0.4 mi paths

What kind of outdoors town is New Brighton?

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

Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does New Brighton have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, New Brighton is ahead of 55% of U.S. towns, #681 of 1,037 in Pennsylvania. 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 New Brighton’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 55%
LessMore
Pennsylvania towns of 2,500+ (1,037)Ahead of 34%

Pennsylvania towns conserve more land than most (a typical one, 8%; the U.S., 4%), so New Brighton’s 3% is ahead of 17% of Pennsylvania towns, while its trails per square mile lead 46% of them.

Water is 8% of New Brighton’s area (0 of 1 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read 2%.

How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B+. 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.

1234
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 Big Rock Park, with 0.4 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.

Big Rock Park

Park
6 acres0.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the parking lot

Fishing Park

Park
2 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the parking lot

Hunkey Alley Park

Park
1 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet

Townsend Park

Park
1 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the parking lot
Who protects it

17 conserved acres

3% of New Brighton’s land. Water is left out: New Brighton has 1.0 square miles of land and 0.1 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages New Brighton’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

Other or Unknown Local Government14 ac
Town or city1 ac
State fish & wildlife1 ac
Not recorded2 ac
Local Park · 15 acLocal Recreation Area · 1 acState Other or Unknown · 1 acLocal Other or Unknown · 1 ac
Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. Public access isn’t recorded for 1 of 8 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
New Brighton Fishing park
Local Park
Other or Unknown Local Government9Open
New Brighton Access
Local Park
Not recorded3Unknown
Riverfront Park 2
Local Park
Other or Unknown Local Government3Open
9th Street Park
Local Park
Other or Unknown Local Government2Open
Townsend Park
Local Park
Other or Unknown Local Government1Open
Fema Flood Buyout (County Or Municipal Owned)
Local Other or Unknown
Not recorded1Open
Things to do

4 places to go in New Brighton

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

Playgrounds in New Brighton

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

Biking & sports

0.4 miles of bike routes

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

0.4 mi
off-road bike paths
Courts & fields
3Baseball
2Basketball
2Tennis
1Soccer
1Skate park
1Football

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 →
Merrick Art GalleryBuilding · listed 1983
About it
Irish-Townsend HouseBuilding · listed 2024
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in New Brighton: April, May, 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)9.610.611.813.214.415.114.813.812.411.09.89.3
High (°F)374050637380848376645241
Rain (in)2.92.43.23.63.84.44.13.73.73.02.93.0

February is the driest month (2.4 in) and July the warmest (highs of 84 °F). 4.4 inches fall in June, the wettest month. The climate in New Brighton →

Next door

New Brighton and its neighbors

New Brighton has the second most mapped trails of the 7 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.

TownConserved
of land
Trail mi
per sq mi
Park acres
per 1,000
Near a park
½ mile
Outdoors
New Brighton3%0.4399%+B
Pulaski Townshipunder 1%under 0.1898%C−
Beaver Falls3%0.1499%C+
Fallston— not graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town
Patterson Heights— not graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town
Patterson Township15%1.16399%+A+
Rochester Townshipunder 1%0.1567%C−

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

Questions about parks and trails in New Brighton

Where can I hike in New Brighton?

The longest trail networks: Big Rock Park, 0.4 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.

How much of New Brighton is conserved land?

3% of its land, against a typical 8% for a Pennsylvania town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Are dogs allowed on New Brighton’s trails?

Big Rock Park and Fishing Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Where can I bike in New Brighton?

0.4 miles of bike routes are on the map: 0.4 of off-road paths.

Is there public land near New Brighton?

9,468 acres of parks and open public land lie inside New Brighton or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 21 of them inside the town line.

How much outdoors does New Brighton have?

Ahead of 55% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #681 of 1,037 in Pennsylvania. 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 New Brighton 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 →