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A+Outdoors
Outdoors in Cle Elum

Cle Elum has 18 miles of mapped trails, 4.0 for every square mile of land

813 acres are parks and preserves, 427 per 1,000 residents. Virtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park. The biggest trail networks: Washington State Horse Park (6 mi), Coal Mines Trail Park (1.1 mi).

Ahead of 98% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land
7%
212 acres · of 4.5 sq mi of land
Trails
18 mi
4.0 per sq mi of land
Park land
813 ac
427 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
99%+
of residents within ½ mile
Lakes & rivers
3
1 boat launch

What kind of outdoors town is Cle Elum?

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

A trail town4.0 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, among the top 1% of U.S. towns.Room to roam427 acres of park per 1,000 residents; the typical U.S. town has 13.Parks close to homeVirtually every resident lives within a half mile of a park.
Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Cle Elum have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Cle Elum is ahead of 98% of U.S. towns. All four inputs are above most U.S. towns; trail miles rank highest, conserved land lowest.

A+
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Cle Elum’s overall grade.
Conserved land7% of the land · typical WA town 4% · U.S. 4%B+Trails4.0 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (18 mi) · WA 0.8 · U.S. 0.4A+Park land427 acres of park per 1,000 residents (813 acres) · WA 11 · U.S. 13AParks close to homeVirtually all residents within a half mile of a park · WA 92% · U.S. 72%A
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 98%
LessMore
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would still be A+. 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.

1234
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk

Pick a walk

The longest trail network is Washington State Horse Park, with 6 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.

Washington State Horse Park

Park
600 acres6 mi of trail
Yellow Ribbon TrailBlue & While Ribbon Trail
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto Parking and Temporary Stalls

Coal Mines Trail Park

Park
13 acres1.1 mi of trail
Coal Mines Trail
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the trailhead

Suncadia Conservancy

Managed by Kittitas Conservation Trust
52 acres0.3 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yetWebsite ↗

Hanson Ponds Park

Managed by City of Cle Elum Parks Department
77 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yetWebsite ↗
All 9 parks & preserves
Washington State Horse Park600 acres · 6 mi of trail
Directions
Coal Mines Trail Park13 acres · 1.1 mi of trail
Directions
Suncadia Conservancy52 acres · 0.3 mi of trail · Kittitas Conservation Trust
Miller-Guzzie Park15 acres · 0.2 mi of trail · City of Cle Elum Parks Department
Directions
Hanson Ponds Park77 acres · City of Cle Elum Parks Department
Memorial Park16 acres · City of Cle Elum Parks Department
Directions
Centennial Park6 acres
Cle Elum City Park3 acres · City of Cle Elum Parks Department
Directions
Wye Park2 acres · City of Cle Elum Parks Department
Directions
Who protects it

212 conserved acres

7% of Cle Elum’s land. Who manages Cle Elum’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

Town or city272 ac
Private owners13 ac
County12 ac
U.S. Forest Service9 ac
Local Other or Unknown · 162 acLocal Park · 135 acNational Forest · 9 ac
Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. Public access isn’t recorded for 1 of 13 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
Loth38
Local Other or Unknown
Town or city150Open
Hanson Ponds
Local Park
Town or city77Open
Disc Golf Course
Local Park
Town or city14Open
Coal Mines Trail Park
Local Park
Private owners13Open
Loth219
Local Other or Unknown
County12Unknown
Loggers Field
Local Park
Town or city12Open
Wenatchee National Forest
National Forest
U.S. Forest Service9Open
Memorial Park
Local Park
Town or city8Open
Centennial Park
Local Park
Town or city4Open
City Park
Local Park
Town or city3Open

3 smaller protected places aren’t shown.

Things to do

4 places to go in Cle Elum

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

Campgrounds in Cle Elum
Tent CampingIn Washington State Horse Park
Directions
Trails & water

4 named trails and 3 lakes & rivers

Named trails
Open to bikes · 2.0 miHorses · 9.4 miUnpaved · 9.3 mi
Coal Mines Trail1.1 mi
Yellow Ribbon Trail0.9 mi
Blue & While Ribbon Trail0.5 mi
Rat Pac0.3 mi
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Kiwanis PondpondMiddle Hanson PondpondUpper Hanson Pondpond
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.

Coal Mines TrailBike route
1.1 mi
Courts & fields
6Equestrian
6Baseball
1Basketball
1Skate park
1Football

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

History along the way

1 place on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service). The map also marks 6 historic points from OpenStreetMap: plaques, memorials and old buildings.

History →
Cle Elum-Roslyn Beneficial Association HospitalBuilding · listed 1980
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in Cle Elum: May to 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)8.910.211.813.515.115.915.614.212.510.89.38.5
High (°F)364149576672818174584434
Rain (in)3.92.62.31.41.20.90.40.40.82.63.84.0

August is the driest month (0.4 in) and the warmest (highs of 81 °F). 4.0 inches fall in December, the wettest month. The climate in Cle Elum →

Next door

Cle Elum and its neighbors

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

Cle Elum18 miSouth Cle Elum0.5 mi
TownConserved
of land		Trail mi
per sq mi		Park acres
per 1,000		Near a park
½ mile		Outdoors
Cle Elum7%4.042799%+A+
South Cle Elum— 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 Cle Elum

Where can I hike in Cle Elum?

The longest trail networks: Washington State Horse Park, 6 miles; Coal Mines Trail Park, 1.1 miles; Suncadia Conservancy, 0.3 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.

How much of Cle Elum is conserved land?

7% of its land, against a typical 4% for a Washington town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Are dogs allowed on Cle Elum’s trails?

Washington State Horse Park and Coal Mines Trail Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Is there public land near Cle Elum?

81,667 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Cle Elum or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 823 of them inside the city line.

How much outdoors does Cle Elum have?

Ahead of 98% 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 Cle Elum 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 →