1
Walden Preserve
Managed by Salem Land Trust
605 acres4.7 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Salem
Salem, CT parks, trails & bike paths
About 29% of Salem is conserved land, roughly 5,561 acres. There are about 46 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Walden Preserve (4.7 mi), Nehantic State Forest (4.5 mi), and Zemko Pond WMA (4.3 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Salem, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Salem outdoors
Conserved land
29%
5,561 of 18,939 acres
Trails
46 mi
1.6 mi per sq mi · 29 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
16
1,299 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
2.9 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
Nehantic State Forest
Managed by Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
884 acres4.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
3
Zemko Pond Wildlife Management Area
Managed by Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
461 acres4.3 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
Salem Community Park
Managed by Town of Salem
142 acres3.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
5
Woodland Warbler Preserve
Managed by Salem Land Trust
268 acres2.7 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
6
City of New London Public Watershed Lands
Managed by City of New London Water Department
866 acres2.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
7
Salem Town Trails
Managed by Town of Salem
99 acres2 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
8
Darling Road Preserve
Managed by Salem Land Trust
138 acres1.9 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
All 16 parks & preserves
- Smuggler’s Rock Preserve112 ac · 1.8 mi trail · Directions
- Zemko Sawmill Preserve87 ac · 1.8 mi trail · Directions
- Big Brook Gorge Preserve19 ac · 0.5 mi trail · Directions
- Tatson's Woods Preserve7 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- Salem Riverside Preserve5 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- Alf & Sylvia Bingham Preserve4 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- Gardner Lake State Park12 ac · Directions
- Ahnert Preserve6 ac
Who protects the land
5,561 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 1,699 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 47 of 64 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 lanes2.9 mi
Courts & fields
- Baseball3
- Tennis2
- Basketball1
- Softball1
- Soccer1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
Salem and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salem | 29.4% | 46.4 mi | 16 |
| Montville | 11.9% | 22.6 mi | 29 |
| Bozrah | 11.7% | 6.0 mi | 11 |
| Colchester | 19.4% | 68.2 mi | 19 |
| East Haddam | 25.9% | 119.6 mi | 64 |
| Lyme | 47.6% | 90.1 mi | 48 |
| East Lyme | 20.6% | 58.2 mi | 27 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Salem'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 20.8-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.