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Stocker Blacksmith Shop NRHP 96000744 Potter County, SDPhoto: Jon Roanhaus · CC BY-SA 3.0
COutdoors
Outdoors in Gettysburg

Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park in Gettysburg

Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park. 17 acres are parks and preserves, 14 per 1,000 residents.

Ahead of 32% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land
under 1%
0 acres · of 1.9 sq mi of land
Trails
0.0 mi
0.0 per sq mi of land
Park land
17 ac
14 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
99%+
of residents within ½ mile

What kind of outdoors town is Gettysburg?

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

Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Gettysburg have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Gettysburg is ahead of 32% of U.S. towns. The share of residents near a park holds the grade up; trail miles pull it down.

C
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Gettysburg’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 32%
LessMore
NoteFew parks or trails are mapped in Gettysburg. OpenStreetMap is mapped by volunteers and coverage varies from town to town, so a town with unmapped parks scores low on them.
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from D 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.

Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Things to do

4 places to go in Gettysburg

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

Playgrounds in Gettysburg

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

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
2Baseball
2Tennis
2Basketball
1Football

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

History along the way

4 places on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).

History →
George Holland HouseBuilding · listed 1989
About it
D. H. and Leah Curran HouseBuilding · listed 1996
About it
Potter County CourthouseBuilding · listed 1996
About it
Stocker, G. L., Blacksmith ShopBuilding · listed 1996
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in Gettysburg: 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)9.110.311.813.414.815.615.314.112.510.99.58.8
High (°F)252942566777848374584229
Rain (in)0.40.60.81.73.03.43.02.31.91.90.60.4

January is the driest month (0.4 in) and July the warmest (highs of 84 °F). 3.4 inches fall in June, the wettest month. The climate in Gettysburg →

Questions about parks and trails in Gettysburg

How much of Gettysburg is conserved land?

under 1% 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.

Is there public land near Gettysburg?

3,991 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Gettysburg or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 17 of them inside the city line.

How much outdoors does Gettysburg have?

Ahead of 32% 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 Gettysburg neighbors.

Town Square →
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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 →