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Arcola Slave QuartersArcola Slave Quarters · Photo: Cecouchman · CC BY-SA 3.0
C−Outdoors
Outdoors in Arcola

Few parks or trails are on the map in Arcola

9 acres are parks and preserves, 2.6 per 1,000 residents. 44% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 0.6 miles of mapped trail cross Arcola, 0.3 per square mile of land.

Ahead of 22% of U.S. towns · #231 of 253 in Virginia. What drives it

Conserved land
1%
9 acres · of 2.3 sq mi of land
Trails
0.6 mi
0.3 per sq mi of land
Park land
9 ac
2.6 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
44%
of residents within ½ mile
Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Arcola have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Arcola is ahead of 22% of U.S. towns, #231 of 253 in Virginia. All four inputs are below most U.S. towns; trail miles come closest.

C−
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Arcola’s overall grade.
Conserved land1% of the land · typical VA town 4% · U.S. 4%C−Trails0.3 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (1 mi) · VA 0.7 · U.S. 0.4B−Park land2.6 acres of park per 1,000 residents (9 acres) · VA 8 · U.S. 13C−Parks close to home44% of residents within a half mile of a park · VA 76% · U.S. 72%C+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 22%
LessMore
Virginia towns of 2,500+ (253)Ahead of 9%
NoteFew parks or trails are mapped in Arcola. 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 C− to C. 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
Who protects it

9 conserved acres

1% of Arcola’s land. Who manages Arcola’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

County9 ac
Not recorded9 ac
Local Park · 18 ac
The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
Ballfields at Old Arcola Community Center
Local Park
County16Open
Tennis Courts at Old Arcola
Local Park
County2Open
Things to do

11 places to go in Arcola

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

Playgrounds in Arcola

11 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
1Basketball

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

History along the way

2 places on the National Register

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

History →
Arcola Slave QuartersBuilding · listed 2008
About it
Arcola Elementary SchoolBuilding · listed 2013
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in Arcola: April and August

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)9.710.711.813.214.314.914.613.712.411.110.09.4
High (°F)434655677583878679685647
Rain (in)2.92.53.53.34.34.24.23.54.03.73.03.4

February is the driest month (2.5 in) and July the warmest (highs of 87 °F). 4.3 inches fall in May, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 87 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Arcola →

Next door

Arcola and its neighbors

Arcola has the second most mapped trails of the 2 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.

Brambleton10 miArcola0.6 mi
TownConserved
of land		Trail mi
per sq mi		Park acres
per 1,000		Near a park
½ mile		Outdoors
Arcola1%0.3344%C−
Brambleton9%1.71571%A−

The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.

Questions about parks and trails in Arcola

How much of Arcola is conserved land?

1% of its land, against a typical 4% for a Virginia town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Is there public land near Arcola?

14,480 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Arcola or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 9 of them inside the town line.

How much outdoors does Arcola have?

Ahead of 22% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #231 of 253 in Virginia. 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 Arcola neighbors.

Town Square →
Share a tip
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 →