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August 2005 view of falls on Otter Creek from Vergennes town dockPhoto: Ahale at English Wikipedia · Public domain
B−Outdoors
Outdoors in Vergennes

Vergennes has 4 acres of parks, 1.7 for every 1,000 residents

2.5 miles of mapped trail cross Vergennes, 1.0 per square mile of land. 64% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 3% of Vergennes’ land is conserved, about 46 acres.

Ahead of 48% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land
3%
46 acres · of 2.5 sq mi of land
Trails
2.5 mi
1.0 per sq mi of land
Park land
4 ac
1.7 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
64%
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
1.0 mi
Lakes & rivers
1
1 boat launch

What kind of outdoors town is Vergennes?

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

Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Vergennes have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Vergennes is ahead of 48% of U.S. towns. Trail miles hold the grade up; park acres per resident pull it down.

B−
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Vergennes’ overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 48%
LessMore
Vermont towns of 2,500+ (71)#71 of 71

Vermont towns conserve more land than most (a typical one, 14%; the U.S., 4%), so Vergennes’ 3% is ahead of 0% of Vermont towns, while its trails per square mile lead 60% of them.

How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C 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
Who protects it

46 conserved acres

3% of Vergennes’ land. Who manages Vergennes’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

Land trusts & nonprofits84 ac
Town or city4 ac
Agricultural Easement · 42 acConservation Easement · 42 acLocal Park · 4 ac
Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 42 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. Public access isn’t recorded for 4 of 10 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
Vergennes Falls Park
Local Park
Town or city3Open
Macdonough Park
Local Park
Town or city1Open
Things to do

5 places to go in Vergennes

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

Playgrounds in Vergennes
Vergennes Union Elementary School Public Playground
Directions

Plus 2 playgrounds without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.

Trails & water

1 named trail and 1 lakes & rivers

Named trails
Unpaved · 0.5 mi
Vergennes Connector Trail0.4 mi
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Biking & sports

1.0 miles of bike routes

Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.

1.0 mi
shoulders & shared lanes
Courts & fields
3Tennis
3Soccer
2Baseball
1Skate park
1Softball

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

History along the way

5 places on the National Register

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.

History →
Gen. Samuel Strong HouseBuilding · listed 1973
About it
Vergennes Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1976
About it
Samuel Paddock Strong HouseBuilding · listed 1979
About it
Capts. Louis and Philomene Daniels HouseBuilding · listed 2001
About it
Vergennes Residential Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2003
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in Vergennes: May 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)9.210.411.813.414.715.515.214.012.410.99.58.9
High (°F)293342566978828073594736
Rain (in)2.21.82.33.03.44.04.03.73.33.72.72.7

February is the driest month (1.8 in) and July the warmest (highs of 82 °F). 4.0 inches fall in July, the wettest month. The climate in Vergennes →

Next door

Vergennes and its neighbors

Vergennes has the second most mapped trails of the 3 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.

TownConserved
of land
Trail mi
per sq mi
Park acres
per 1,000
Near a park
½ mile
Outdoors
Vergennes3%1.0264%B−
Ferrisburgh39%0.41,08436%A−
Waltham— not graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

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

Questions about parks and trails in Vergennes

How much of Vergennes is conserved land?

3% of its land, against a typical 14% for a Vermont town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Where can I bike in Vergennes?

1.0 miles of bike routes are on the map: 1.0 of shoulders and shared lanes.

Is there public land near Vergennes?

12,703 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Vergennes or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 4 of them inside the city line.

How much outdoors does Vergennes have?

Ahead of 48% 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 Vergennes 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 →