Photo: Bill McChesney from Charlottesville, VA · CC BY 2.0Few parks or trails are on the map in Dayton
95% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 2 acres are parks and preserves, 1.0 per 1,000 residents. 0.2 miles of mapped trail cross Dayton, 0.2 per square mile of land.
Ahead of 26% of U.S. towns. What drives it
What kind of outdoors town is Dayton?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
How much outdoors does Dayton have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Dayton is ahead of 26% of U.S. towns. The share of residents near a park holds 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.
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.
4 places on the National Register
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service). The map also marks 2 historic points from OpenStreetMap: plaques, memorials and old buildings.
The best walking months in Dayton: 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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 9.8 | 10.7 | 11.8 | 13.2 | 14.2 | 14.8 | 14.6 | 13.6 | 12.4 | 11.1 | 10.0 | 9.5 |
| High (°F) | 44 | 48 | 55 | 67 | 74 | 82 | 86 | 84 | 78 | 68 | 57 | 47 |
| Rain (in) | 2.8 | 2.4 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 3.9 | 4.1 | 2.9 | 2.7 | 3.0 |
February is the driest month (2.4 in) and July the warmest (highs of 86 °F). 4.4 inches fall in June, the wettest month. The climate in Dayton →
Questions about parks and trails in Dayton
How much of Dayton 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.
Is there public land near Dayton?
13,126 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Dayton or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 2 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Dayton have?
Ahead of 26% 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 Dayton 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 →