Nathaniel Gist House · Photo: Bill Fitzpatrick · CC BY-SA 3.0Few parks or trails are on the map in Monarch Mill
13 acres are parks and preserves, 7.0 per 1,000 residents. 35% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 1.0 miles of mapped trail cross Monarch Mill, 0.2 per square mile of land.
Ahead of 22% of U.S. towns. What drives it
How much outdoors does Monarch Mill have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Monarch Mill is ahead of 22% of U.S. towns. All four inputs are below most U.S. towns; trail miles come closest.
Few South Carolina towns conserve much land (a typical one, 1%; the U.S., 4%), so Monarch Mill’s under 1% is ahead of 25% of South Carolina towns, while its trails per square mile lead 53% of them.
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.
13 conserved acres
under 1% of Monarch Mill’s land. Who manages Monarch Mill’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monarch Ballfield Local Recreation Area | County | 13 | Open |
0.0 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.
The best walking months in Monarch Mill: April and May
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) | 10.1 | 10.9 | 11.9 | 13.0 | 14.0 | 14.5 | 14.3 | 13.4 | 12.3 | 11.2 | 10.3 | 9.8 |
| High (°F) | 53 | 58 | 65 | 74 | 81 | 88 | 91 | 89 | 83 | 74 | 63 | 56 |
| Rain (in) | 3.9 | 3.5 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 3.5 | 4.2 | 3.5 | 4.1 | 3.6 | 3.3 | 3.6 | 4.2 |
October is the driest month (3.3 in) and July the warmest (highs of 91 °F). 4.2 inches fall in March, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 91 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Monarch Mill →
Monarch Mill and its neighbors
Monarch Mill has the 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monarch Mill | under 1% | 0.2 | 7 | 35% | C− |
| Union | 1% | 0.1 | 7 | 55% | C− |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Monarch Mill
How much of Monarch Mill is conserved land?
under 1% of its land, against a typical 1% for a South Carolina town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Is there public land near Monarch Mill?
34,451 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Monarch Mill or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 13 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Monarch Mill have?
Ahead of 22% 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 Monarch Mill 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 →