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Old Congregational ChurchOld Congregational Church · Photo: Swampyank at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
C+Outdoors
Outdoors in Scituate

37% of Scituate’s land is conserved: 11,247 acres

18% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 51 acres are parks and preserves, 4.8 per 1,000 residents. 4.7 miles of mapped trail cross Scituate, 0.1 per square mile of land.

Ahead of 39% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land
37%
11,247 acres · of 48.1 sq mi of land
Trails
4.7 mi
0.1 per sq mi of land
Park land
51 ac
4.8 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
18%
of residents within ½ mile
Highest peak
732 ft
Chopmist Hill
Lakes & rivers
10
1 beach

What kind of outdoors town is Scituate?

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

Land that stays wild37% of the land is conserved; a typical Rhode Island town, 19%.History along the way10 places on the National Register.
Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Scituate have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Scituate is ahead of 39% of U.S. towns. Conserved land holds the grade up; the share of residents near a park pulls it down.

C+
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Scituate’s overall grade.
Conserved land37% of the land · typical RI town 19% · U.S. 4%A+Trails0.1 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (5 mi) · RI 1.1 · U.S. 0.4CPark land4.8 acres of park per 1,000 residents (51 acres) · RI 21 · U.S. 13CParks close to home18% of residents within a half mile of a park · RI 72% · U.S. 72%C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 39%
LessMore
Rhode Island towns of 2,500+ (38)#38 of 38

Rhode Island towns conserve more land than most (a typical one, 19%; the U.S., 4%), so Scituate’s 37% is ahead of 97% of Rhode Island towns, while its trails per square mile lead 0% of them.

Water is 12% of Scituate’s area (7 of 55 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read 32%.

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

Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.

Manning Field

Park
9 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet

Hope Park

Park
7 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the parking lot

Hope Pond Recreational Area

Park
4 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the parking lot

Westconnaug Meadows

Park
3 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto Westconnaug Meadows
All 5 parks & preserves
Manning Field9 acres
Hope Park7 acres
Directions
Hope Pond Recreational Area4 acres
Directions
Westconnaug Meadows3 acres
Directions
Hope Village Green1 acres
Who protects it

11,247 conserved acres

37% of Scituate’s land. Water is left out: Scituate has 48.1 square miles of land and 6.6 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Scituate’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

Land trusts & nonprofits327 ac
State conservation278 ac
State natural resources207 ac
Joint122 ac
USDA easements (NRCS)85 ac
Other state land66 ac
Other or Unknown Federal Land36 ac
Watershed Protection Area · 10,509 acConservation Easement · 573 acAgricultural Easement · 212 acLocal Conservation Area · 164 acPrivate Other or Unknown · 123 ac
Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 261 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. Public access isn’t recorded for 83 of 106 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
Scituate Reservoir
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded6,251Unknown
Barden Reservoir
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded637Unknown
Qounopaug Brook
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded456Unknown
Field Hill Road
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded439Unknown
Tunk Hill Road
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded329Unknown
Filtration Plant
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded320Unknown
Cork Brook
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded312Unknown
Wilbur Hollow Brook
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded195Unknown
Old Plainfield Pike
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded153Unknown
Betty Pond
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded149Unknown

5 smaller protected places aren’t shown.

Things to do

12 places to go in Scituate

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

Peaks in Scituate
Chopmist Hill732 ft elevation
Directions
Round Hill614 ft elevation
Directions
Nipmuc Hill594 ft elevation
Directions
Field Hill571 ft elevation
Directions
Tunk Hill571 ft elevation
Directions
Mount Misery505 ft elevation
Directions
Rocky Hill482 ft elevation
Directions
Burnt Hill430 ft elevation
Directions
1 more peak
Burnt Hill
Directions
Trails & water

5 named trails and 10 lakes & rivers

Named trails
Unpaved · 2.2 mi
Blue Trail1.4 mi
Yellow Trail0.9 mi
Nature Trail (white)0.6 mi
Red Trail0.4 mi
Green Trail0.3 mi
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Betty PondBrush Meadow SwampHope PondJordan PondMoswansicut PondpondPeeptoad PondreservoirPine Swamp ReservoirreservoirScituate ReservoirreservoirNorth Branch Pawtuxet RiverPonaganset River
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
7Tennis
5Baseball
2Basketball

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

History along the way

10 places on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service). The map also marks 6 historic points from OpenStreetMap: plaques, memorials and old buildings.

History →
Old Congregational ChurchBuilding · listed 1974
About it
Dexter Arnold FarmsteadBuilding · listed 1977
About it
Smithville SeminaryBuilding · listed 1978
About it
Smithville-North ScituateDistrict · listed 1979
About it
Amos Cooke HouseBuilding · listed 1979
About it
Josephine White BlockBuilding · listed 1980
About it
Battey-Barden HouseBuilding · listed 1980
About it
Andrews-Luther FarmBuilding · listed 1985
About it
Clayville Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1988
About it
Hope Village Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1995
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in Scituate: May to 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)9.510.511.813.314.515.214.913.812.411.09.89.1
High (°F)363946586977828073625141
Rain (in)4.13.64.84.63.74.23.64.14.35.14.45.0

February is the driest month (3.6 in) and July the warmest (highs of 82 °F). 5.1 inches fall in October, the wettest month. The climate in Scituate →

Next door

Scituate and its neighbors

Tap a town to see its outdoors.

Glocester49 miCoventry41 miJohnston26 miCranston16 miFoster14 miScituate4.7 mi
TownConserved
of land		Trail mi
per sq mi		Park acres
per 1,000		Near a park
½ mile		Outdoors
Scituate37%0.1518%C+
Foster14%0.32521%B
Cranston7%0.61283%B+
Johnston6%1.1635%B−
Coventry19%0.74148%A−
Glocester20%0.92132%B+

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

Questions about parks and trails in Scituate

How much of Scituate is conserved land?

37% of its land, against a typical 19% for a Rhode Island town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Are dogs allowed on Scituate’s trails?

Manning Field and Hope Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Is there public land near Scituate?

12,750 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Scituate or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 51 of them inside the town line.

How much outdoors does Scituate have?

Ahead of 39% 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 Scituate 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 →