1
Porter Howard Watershed Land
Managed by Town of Manchester
563 acres15.9 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Manchester
Manchester, CT parks, trails & bike paths
About 18% of Manchester is conserved land, roughly 3,092 acres. There are about 101 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Porter Howard Watershed Land (15.9 mi), Case Mountain Recreational Area (13 mi), and Buckingham Reservoir Watershed (10.1 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Manchester, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Manchester outdoors
Conserved land
18%
3,092 of 17,608 acres
Trails
101 mi
3.7 mi per sq mi · 61 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
52
52 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
22.9 mi
1.1 mi lanes · 21.8 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
Case Mountain Recreational Area
Managed by Town of Manchester
398 acres13 mi of trail
Carriage PathBlack Mamba
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
Buckingham Reservoir Watershed
Managed by Town of Manchester Water Department
508 acres10.1 mi of trail
Black MambaCornholio
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
Lydall Watershed Land
Managed by Town of Manchester
222 acres4.2 mi of trail
Lake Street to Lydall TrailDiversion/TrailGas Line Path
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
5
Lombardo Farm
Managed by Manchester Land Conservation Trust
99 acres2.9 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
6
Oak Grove Nature Center
Managed by Town of Manchester
53 acres1.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
7
Bush Hill Farm
Managed by Manchester Land Conservation Trust
57 acres1.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
8
Northwest Park
Managed by Town of Manchester
28 acres1.2 mi of trail
Union Pond Trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
All 52 parks & preserves
Showing 1–10 of 52 parks & preserves
Porter Howard Watershed Land563 acres · 15.9 mi of trail · Town of Manchester
Case Mountain Recreational Area398 acres · 13 mi of trail · Town of Manchester
Buckingham Reservoir Watershed508 acres · 10.1 mi of trail · Town of Manchester Water Department
Lydall Watershed Land222 acres · 4.2 mi of trail · Town of Manchester
Lombardo Farm99 acres · 2.9 mi of trail · Manchester Land Conservation Trust
Oak Grove Nature Center53 acres · 1.5 mi of trail · Town of Manchester
Bush Hill Farm57 acres · 1.4 mi of trail · Manchester Land Conservation Trust
Northwest Park28 acres · 1.2 mi of trail · Town of Manchester
Wickham Park Bird Sanctuary16 acres · 1 mi of trail
Manning–Ferris Park14 acres · 0.8 mi of trail · Manchester Land Conservation Trust
Who protects the land
3,092 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 45 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 89 of 123 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes1.1 mi
- Off-road bike paths21.8 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Tennis23
- Basketball15
- Baseball12
- Soccer9
- Softball7
- Beach volleyball4
- Pickleball1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Nearby
Manchester and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester | 17.6% | 101.0 mi | 52 |
| Glastonbury | 28.6% | 174.3 mi | 185 |
| Bolton | 11.5% | 37.8 mi | 25 |
| East Hartford | 5.9% | 11.8 mi | 26 |
| South Windsor | 11.6% | 29.6 mi | 50 |
| Vernon | 18.9% | 30.7 mi | 37 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Manchester'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.