1
Cockaponset State Forest
Managed by Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
3,707 acres38.6 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
Outdoors · Chester
Chester, CT parks, trails & bike paths
About 36% of Chester is conserved land, roughly 3,837 acres. There are about 45 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Cockaponset State Forest (38.6 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Chester, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Chester outdoors
Conserved land
36%
3,837 of 10,708 acres
Trails
45 mi
2.7 mi per sq mi · 36 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
13
1,003 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
0.0 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 0.0 mi off-road paths
Conserved land is a share of the whole town area. Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number or a place below to zoom in© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Parks & preserves with trails
Ranked by mapped trail miles. Directions go to the nearest marked trailhead or public parking.
2
Constance Baker Motley Preserve
Managed by Chester Land Trust
6 acres0.4 mi of trail
Little Rock Nine Trail
Dog rules not recorded
3
Chester Creek Preserve
Managed by Chester Land Trust
42 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
4
Connecticut Valley Railroad State Park Trail
Nature preserve
16 acres
Dog rules not recorded
All 13 parks & preserves
- North Quarter Park11 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Carini Preserve5 ac · Directions
- Town Park On Pattaconk Brook4 ac
- Scudder Preserve2 ac · Directions
- Killingworth Reservoir Watershed Reserve Land1 ac
- Town Park At Jennings Pond1 ac
- Village Green1 ac
- Wood Preserve1 ac
- Parkers Point1 ac
Who protects the land
3,837 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 12 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 47 of 49 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes0.0 mi
- Off-road bike paths0.0 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Tennis1
- Beach volleyball1
- Basketball1
- Baseball1
- Soccer1
- Skate park1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
Chester and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chester | 35.8% | 44.5 mi | 13 |
| Deep River | 22.1% | 34.0 mi | 24 |
| Lyme | 47.6% | 90.1 mi | 48 |
| Haddam | 28.4% | 97.1 mi | 36 |
| East Haddam | 25.9% | 119.6 mi | 64 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Chester's trails yet. Muddy, icy, a bridge out, where to park: a quick post helps the next person.
Sources: trails, parks, preserves, courts and bike lanes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), map data as of 2026-09-28. Conserved land: USGS Gap Analysis Project, Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US). Measured against the Census town boundary.
How we measure
"Trails" are OpenStreetMap paths, bridleways, public tracks and unpaved footways, plus footways inside a park or preserve or on a named trail route. Sidewalks are left out. Areas are counted on a 20-meter grid, so overlapping parcels count once. "Conserved" includes conservation easements, which protect land from development but are usually private property. Trailheads are the nearest marked trailhead, public parking lot or information board within about 150 meters of a preserve. Dog rules come from OpenStreetMap when someone has tagged them; otherwise we show what's typical for the land manager, or say the rules aren't recorded.