Sitting Bull Crystal Cavern Dance Pavilion · Photo: 25or6to4 · CC BY-SA 4.022% of Colonial Pine Hills’ land is conserved: 2,123 acres
6.7 miles of mapped trail cross Colonial Pine Hills, 0.4 per square mile of land.
Ahead of 36% of U.S. towns · #29 of 35 in South Dakota. What drives it
What kind of outdoors town is Colonial Pine Hills?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
How much outdoors does Colonial Pine Hills have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Colonial Pine Hills is ahead of 36% of U.S. towns, #29 of 35 in South Dakota. Conserved land holds the grade up; the share of residents near a park 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.
2,123 conserved acres
22% of Colonial Pine Hills’ land. Who manages Colonial Pine Hills’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 61 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. Public access isn’t recorded for 2 of 5 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Hills National Forest National Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 2,061 | Open |
1 named trail
6.6 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
1 place on the National Register
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).
The best walking months in Colonial Pine Hills: 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.
| 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 | 39 | 48 | 55 | 65 | 76 | 84 | 83 | 74 | 59 | 47 | 39 |
| Rain (in) | 0.3 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 2.2 | 4.1 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
January is the driest month (0.3 in) and July the warmest (highs of 84 °F). 4.1 inches fall in May, the wettest month. The climate in Colonial Pine Hills →
Colonial Pine Hills and its neighbors
Colonial Pine Hills has the second 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colonial Pine Hills | 22% | 0.4 | under 1 | under 1% | C+ |
| Rapid City | 3% | 0.6 | 22 | 69% | B+ |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Colonial Pine Hills
How much of Colonial Pine Hills is conserved land?
22% of its land, against a typical 3% for a South Dakota town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Where can I bike in Colonial Pine Hills?
6.6 miles of bike routes are on the map: 6.6 of off-road paths.
Is there public land near Colonial Pine Hills?
107,052 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Colonial Pine Hills or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 2,070 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Colonial Pine Hills have?
Ahead of 36% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #29 of 35 in South Dakota. 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 Colonial Pine Hills 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 →