Photo: Bill Fitzpatrick · CC BY-SA 3.0St. Matthews has 31 acres of parks, 19 for every 1,000 residents
83% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 1.1 miles of mapped trail cross St. Matthews, 0.6 per square mile of land. 2% of St. Matthews’ land is conserved, about 26 acres.
Ahead of 65% of U.S. towns. What drives it
What kind of outdoors town is St. Matthews?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
How much outdoors does St. Matthews have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, St. Matthews is ahead of 65% of U.S. towns. The share of residents near a park holds the grade up; conserved land pulls it down.
Few South Carolina towns conserve much land (a typical one, 1%; the U.S., 4%), so St. Matthews’ 2% is ahead of 60% of South Carolina towns, while its trails per square mile lead 76% 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.
26 conserved acres
2% of St. Matthews’ land. Who manages St. Matthews’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Park Local Park | Town or city | 25 | Open |
1 places to go in St. Matthews
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
1 lakes & rivers
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.
4 places on the National Register
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service). The map also marks 1 historic points from OpenStreetMap: plaques, memorials and old buildings.
The best walking months in St. Matthews: 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 | 13.9 | 14.4 | 14.2 | 13.4 | 12.3 | 11.3 | 10.4 | 9.9 |
| High (°F) | 58 | 62 | 69 | 77 | 84 | 89 | 92 | 90 | 85 | 77 | 67 | 60 |
| Rain (in) | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 5.2 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 4.3 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 3.7 |
November is the driest month (2.9 in) and July the warmest (highs of 92 °F). 5.2 inches fall in July, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 92 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in St. Matthews →
Questions about parks and trails in St. Matthews
How much of St. Matthews is conserved land?
2% 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 St. Matthews?
9,002 acres of parks and open public land lie inside St. Matthews or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 31 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does St. Matthews have?
Ahead of 65% 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 St. Matthews 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 →