Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Few parks or trails are on the map in Elkhart
1 acre is park or preserve, 0.4 per 1,000 residents. 0.1 miles of mapped trail cross Elkhart, 0.1 per square mile of land. 37% of residents live within a half mile of a park.
Ahead of 9% of U.S. towns. What drives it
How much outdoors does Elkhart have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Elkhart is ahead of 9% of U.S. towns. All four inputs are below most U.S. towns; the share of residents near a park comes closest.
Few Texas towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Elkhart’s under 1% is ahead of 6% of Texas towns, while its trails per square mile lead 22% 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.
1 places to go in Elkhart
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
1 playground without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see it.
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.
April is the best month for walking in Elkhart
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) | 10.3 | 11.0 | 11.9 | 12.9 | 13.8 | 14.2 | 14.0 | 13.3 | 12.3 | 11.3 | 10.5 | 10.1 |
| High (°F) | 59 | 63 | 70 | 77 | 84 | 90 | 94 | 95 | 89 | 79 | 68 | 60 |
| Rain (in) | 4.0 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 4.6 | 4.1 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 3.5 | 4.3 | 3.9 | 4.2 |
July is the driest month (2.6 in) and August the warmest (highs of 95 °F). 4.6 inches fall in May, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 95 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Elkhart →
Questions about parks and trails in Elkhart
How much of Elkhart is conserved land?
under 1% of its land, against a typical 2% for a Texas town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Is there public land near Elkhart?
722 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Elkhart or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), almost none of it inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Elkhart have?
Ahead of 9% 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 Elkhart 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 →