Photo: Magnolia677 · CC BY-SA 4.0Few parks or trails are on the map in Chesapeake
1 acre is park or preserve, 0.6 per 1,000 residents. 70% of residents live within a half mile of a park.
Ahead of 12% of U.S. towns. What drives it
How much outdoors does Chesapeake have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Chesapeake is ahead of 12% of U.S. towns. The share of residents near a park holds the grade up; trail miles pull it down.
Few West Virginia towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Chesapeake’s under 1% is ahead of 21% of West Virginia towns, while its trails per square mile lead 2% of them.
Water is 25% of Chesapeake’s area (0 of 1 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read under 1%.
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.
1 conserved acres
under 1% of Chesapeake’s land. Water is left out: Chesapeake has 0.5 square miles of land and 0.2 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Chesapeake’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown Park Local Recreation Area | Town or city | 1 | Open |
The best walking months in Chesapeake: 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 | 13.1 | 14.2 | 14.8 | 14.6 | 13.6 | 12.4 | 11.1 | 10.0 | 9.5 |
| High (°F) | 44 | 48 | 57 | 69 | 76 | 83 | 86 | 85 | 80 | 69 | 57 | 47 |
| Rain (in) | 3.3 | 3.2 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 4.9 | 4.5 | 5.4 | 3.9 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 3.7 |
November is the driest month (3.0 in) and July the warmest (highs of 86 °F). 5.4 inches fall in July, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 86 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Chesapeake →
Questions about parks and trails in Chesapeake
How much of Chesapeake is conserved land?
under 1% of its land, against a typical 2% for a West 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 Chesapeake?
9,721 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Chesapeake or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 1 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Chesapeake have?
Ahead of 12% 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 Chesapeake 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 →