1
Hickory Knolls Nature Preserve
Managed by St. Charles Park District
235 acres3.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · St. Charles
St. Charles, IL parks, trails & bike paths
About 11% of St. Charles is conserved land, roughly 1,038 acres. There are about 17 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Hickory Knolls Nature Preserve (3.1 mi), East Side Sports Complex (1.8 mi), and Pottawatomie Park (1 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in St. Charles, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
St. Charles outdoors
Conserved land
11%
1,038 of 9,579 acres
Trails
17 mi
1.1 mi per sq mi · 10 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
38
32 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
15.1 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 15.1 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
East Side Sports Complex
Managed by St. Charles Park District
95 acres1.8 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
3
Pottawatomie Park
Park
20 acres1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
James O. Breen Community Park
Managed by Saint Charles Park District
146 acres0.9 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
5
Cambridge Park
Park
13 acres0.7 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
6
Ferson Creek Fen Nature Preserve
Managed by Saint Charles Park District
33 acres0.6 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
7
Mount Saint Mary Park
Managed by Saint Charles Park District
24 acres0.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
8
Davis Park
Park
14 acres0.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
All 38 parks & preserves
- Renaux Manor Park12 ac · 0.3 mi trail · Directions
- Fox Chase Park22 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Hunt Club Park8 ac · 0.2 mi trail
- Rotary Park4 ac · 0.2 mi trail
- Baker Park1 ac · 0.2 mi trail · Directions
- Timber Trails Park34 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Harvest Hills Park12 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Ferson Creek Park8 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Kingswood-Charlemagne Park7 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- Lincoln Park2 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Norris Woods Nature Preserve67 ac · Directions
- Delnor Woods Park62 ac · Directions
- Andersen Woods Forest Preserve42 ac · Directions
- Kane County Fairgrounds35 ac · Directions
- Langum Park28 ac · Directions
- Breen Park South Soccer Fields27 ac · Directions
- Leroy Oaks Forest Preserve26 ac · Directions
- Fox River Bluff Forest Preserve15 ac · Directions
- Leroy Oakes East Forest Preserve3 ac
- Belgium Town Park3 ac · Directions
- Surrey Hill Park3 ac
- Fox River Bluff West Forest Preserve2 ac · Directions
- Baker Field Park2 ac
- Moody Park2 ac · Directions
- Red Gate Park2 ac
- Wheeler Park1 ac · Directions
- Kehoe Park1 ac
- Hazletine Park1 ac · Directions
- Fairview Park1 ac · Directions
- City Hall Park1 ac · Directions
Who protects the land
1,038 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 73 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 2 of 48 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 paths15.1 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Tennis34
- Baseball28
- Soccer16
- Basketball11
- Beach volleyball9
- Pickleball7
- Volleyball5
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
St. Charles and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Charles | 10.8% | 17.2 mi | 38 |
| Wayne | 21.7% | 2.2 mi | 4 |
| St. Charles | 11.6% | 40.4 mi | 61 |
| Geneva | 13.8% | 18.9 mi | 38 |
| Geneva | 13.7% | 28.1 mi | 46 |
| West Chicago | 9.6% | 23.8 mi | 15 |
| Campton | 13.1% | 31.7 mi | 16 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about St. Charles'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.