Photo: Mojo Hand · CC BY-SA 4.0Chatham has 10 acres of parks, 7.1 for every 1,000 residents
0.8 miles of mapped trail cross Chatham, 0.4 per square mile of land. 62% of residents live within a half mile of a park.
Ahead of 32% of U.S. towns. What drives it
What kind of outdoors town is Chatham?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
How much outdoors does Chatham have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Chatham is ahead of 32% of U.S. towns. Trail miles hold the grade up; conserved land 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.
Pick a walk
Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
1 conserved acres
under 1% of Chatham’s land. Who manages Chatham’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 1 acre is a conservation easement, usually private land. The walks above are places people visit.
3 places to go in Chatham
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
3 playgrounds without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.
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.
8 places on the National Register, one a National Historic Landmark
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 Chatham: April to June 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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 9.9 | 10.8 | 11.9 | 13.1 | 14.1 | 14.7 | 14.4 | 13.6 | 12.4 | 11.2 | 10.1 | 9.6 |
| High (°F) | 48 | 51 | 60 | 70 | 77 | 84 | 87 | 86 | 79 | 70 | 59 | 51 |
| Rain (in) | 3.9 | 2.9 | 4.0 | 3.9 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 4.1 | 4.7 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.7 |
February is the driest month (2.9 in) and July the warmest (highs of 87 °F). 4.7 inches fall in September, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 87 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Chatham →
Questions about parks and trails in Chatham
How much of Chatham is conserved land?
under 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.
Are dogs allowed on Chatham’s trails?
Frances Hurt Park and Silas Moore Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Is there public land near Chatham?
2,774 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Chatham or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 10 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Chatham 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 Chatham 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 →