1
Moosup Valley State Park Trail
Managed by State of Connecticut
48 acres0.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Sterling
Sterling, CT parks, trails & bike paths
About 24% of Sterling is conserved land, roughly 4,156 acres. There are about 15 miles of mapped trails.
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Sterling, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Sterling outdoors
Conserved land
24%
4,156 of 17,352 acres
Trails
15 mi
0.5 mi per sq mi · 9 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
8
1,145 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
3.5 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 3.5 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
Sun Ridge Resort
Nature preserve
42 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Website
3
Ross Marsh Wildlife Area
Managed by State of Connecticut
27 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
4
River's Edge Campground
Nature preserve
27 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
All 8 parks & preserves
- Neil H. Cook Memorial Park7 ac · Directions
- Dr. Olav and Anna-Lisa Laakso Preserve5 ac · Directions
- Sterling Radio Tower Site1 ac
- Pitch Pine Grove Picnic Area1 ac
Who protects the land
4,156 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 1,197 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 36 of 47 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 paths3.5 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Soccer5
- Baseball3
- Basketball3
- Tennis2
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
Sterling and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sterling | 24% | 14.7 mi | 8 |
| Plainfield | 13.5% | 22.9 mi | 15 |
| Coventry | 18.1% | 37.9 mi | 11 |
| Foster | 13.6% | 14.3 mi | 3 |
| Voluntown | 66.4% | 83.1 mi | 2 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Sterling'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.