1
West Rock Ridge State Park
Managed by Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
297 acres8.8 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
Outdoors · New Haven
New Haven, CT parks, trails & bike paths
About 8.5% of New Haven is conserved land, roughly 1,090 acres. There are about 53 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in West Rock Ridge State Park (8.8 mi), Yale Nature Preserve (5.8 mi), and East Rock Park (5.8 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in New Haven, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
New Haven outdoors
Conserved land
8.5%
1,090 of 12,815 acres
Trails
53 mi
2.7 mi per sq mi · 22 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
72
8 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
49.1 mi
17.1 mi lanes · 11.3 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
Yale Nature Preserve
Managed by Yale University
310 acres5.8 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
East Rock Park
Park
186 acres5.8 mi of trail
Dogs on leashMapped in OpenStreetMap
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
Edgewood Park
Park
114 acres3.6 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
5
East Shore Park
Park
88 acres2.3 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
6
Lighthouse Point Park
Park
84 acres1.8 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
7
Nathan Hale Park
Park
35 acres0.9 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
8
Quinnipiac Meadows Eugene B. Fargeorge Nature Preserve
Managed by New Haven Land Trust
37 acres0.8 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the trailhead
All 60 parks & preserves
- Beaver Pond Park88 ac · 0.7 mi trail · Directions
- Fairmont Park22 ac · 0.6 mi trail · Directions
- Quarry Park Preserve15 ac · 0.6 mi trail · Directions
- Fort Wooster Park12 ac · 0.6 mi trail · Directions
- Marsh Botanical Gardens8 ac · 0.6 mi trail · Directions
- Old Campus5 ac · 0.6 mi trail · Directions
- West River Open Space19 ac · 0.5 mi trail · Directions
- De Gale Field10 ac · 0.5 mi trail · Directions
- Maltby Lakes28 ac · 0.4 mi trail
- College Woods14 ac · 0.4 mi trail · Directions
- Pond Lily Nature Preserve12 ac · 0.4 mi trail · Directions
- Cherry Ann Park5 ac · 0.4 mi trail · Directions
- West River Memorial Park115 ac · 0.3 mi trail · Directions
- Quinnipiac River Park4 ac · 0.3 mi trail · Directions
- Amistad Park2 ac · 0.3 mi trail · Directions
- Cross Campus2 ac · 0.3 mi trail · Directions
- Peat Meadow Park15 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Bayview Park7 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Farnam Memorial Gardens7 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- South Genesee Park4 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Ella P. Scantlebury Park4 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Chatham Square3 ac · 0.2 mi trail
- Jocelyn Square3 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Pardee Seawall Park2 ac · 0.2 mi trail
- Ernest McClain Park2 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Trowbridge Square Park1 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- East Rock Park-Blake Field11 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Marlin Estate9 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park9 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Clinton Park8 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Beecher Park2 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Jonathan Edwards Courtyard1 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Smith Palmieri Park1 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- Jean Pope Memorial Park1 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- Art Center Mini-Park1 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Quinnipiac River Marsh Wildlife Area28 ac · Directions
- West River Wildlife Sanctuary24 ac · Directions
- Bishop Woods Bird Sanctuary19 ac · Directions
- Morris Creek Nature Preserve16 ac
- Criscuolo Park10 ac · Directions
- Edgerton Park7 ac
- Palmieri Parcel5 ac · Directions
- Edgewood Mall5 ac · Directions
- Wooster Square4 ac · Directions
- West Rock Nature Center3 ac · Directions
- Dover Beach3 ac · Directions
- Middletown Avenue Park3 ac · Directions
- English Mall3 ac
- Hilltop Playground2 ac · Directions
- Bowling Green2 ac · Directions
- Eastview Public Housing Playground1 ac · Directions
- Hamilton Street Walkway1 ac · Directions
Who protects the land
1,090 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 2 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 44 of 124 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes17.1 mi
- Off-road bike paths11.3 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes20.7 mi
Courts & fields
- Tennis66
- Basketball49
- Baseball26
- Soccer24
- Football7
- Multi-sport5
- Skate park3
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
New Haven and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Haven | 8.5% | 53.1 mi | 72 |
| West Haven | 8% | 9.9 mi | 17 |
| East Haven | 13.3% | 18.0 mi | 23 |
| Hamden | 15.4% | 123.1 mi | 31 |
| Woodbridge | 10.3% | 55.4 mi | 27 |
| North Haven | 7.1% | 28.3 mi | 17 |
| Orange | 10.8% | 30.0 mi | 14 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about New Haven'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 23-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.