1
McDonald Woods
Park
86 acres3.7 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Ames
Ames, IA parks, trails & bike paths
About 6.6% of Ames is conserved land, roughly 1,196 acres. There are about 37 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in McDonald Woods (3.7 mi), Central Campus (1.4 mi), and Brookside Park (1.2 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Ames, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Ames outdoors
Conserved land
6.6%
1,196 of 18,162 acres
Trails
37 mi
1.3 mi per sq mi · 13 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
42
18 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
85.0 mi
7.7 mi lanes · 74.5 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
Central Campus
Park
21 acres1.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
Brookside Park
Managed by City of Ames
96 acres1.2 mi of trail
Dogs allowedMapped in OpenStreetMap
4
Munn Woods
Managed by City of Ames
49 acres1.2 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
5
Moore Memorial Park
Managed by City of Ames
82 acres1.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
6
ISU Arboretum
Managed by Iowa State University
29 acres0.9 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
7
Ada Hayden Heritage Park
Park
438 acres0.6 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
8
Tedesco Environmental Learning Corridor
Nature preserve
48 acres0.6 mi of trail
Wetland BoardwalkWalnut Grove Path
Dog rules not recorded
All 42 parks & preserves
- Inis Grove Park25 ac · 0.5 mi trail · Directions
- Emma McCarthy Lee Park36 ac · 0.3 mi trail · Directions
- Christofferson Park7 ac · 0.3 mi trail · Directions
- Stuart Smith Park24 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Tahira & Labh Hira Park6 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Northridge Heights Park5 ac · 0.2 mi trail
- Bandshell Park2 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- North River Valley Park46 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Gateway Park36 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- South River Valley Park23 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Greenbriar Park7 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Daley Park7 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Carr Park6 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- State Forest Nursery96 ac · Directions
- Ioway Creek Stormwater Wetland89 ac · Directions
- Ames High Prairie State Preserve33 ac · Directions
- Parkview Park14 ac
- Ioway Creek Park12 ac · Directions
- Country Gables Park6 ac · Directions
- Lloyd Kurtz Park5 ac · Directions
- Charles & June Calhoun Park5 ac · Directions
- Franklin Park5 ac · Directions
- O'Neil Park4 ac · Directions
- Izaak Walton League Park3 ac
- Richardson Court Park3 ac · Directions
- Christopher Gartner Park3 ac
- Moore Park3 ac · Directions
- Sunset Ridge Park1 ac
- Schainker Plaza1 ac · Directions
- Roosevelt Park1 ac
- Anderson Sculpture Garden1 ac · Directions
- Hutchison Park1 ac
- The Grove1 ac · Directions
- Duff Park1 ac · Directions
Who protects the land
1,196 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes7.7 mi
- Off-road bike paths74.5 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes2.8 mi
Courts & fields
- Soccer35
- Basketball34
- Tennis34
- Baseball26
- Beach volleyball18
- Softball10
- Tracks7
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
Ames and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ames | 6.6% | 36.8 mi | 42 |
| Nevada | 2.9% | 3.5 mi | 10 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Ames'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 25.8-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.