1
Kilgour Park
Park
13 acres0.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Outdoors · Sterling
Sterling, IL parks, trails & bike paths
About 3.6% of Sterling is conserved land, roughly 143 acres. There are about 2.8 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Kilgour Park (0.5 mi) and Platt Park (0.5 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Sterling, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Sterling outdoors
Conserved land
3.6%
143 of 3,920 acres
Trails
2.8 mi
0.5 mi per sq mi · 1 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
16
10 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
4.3 mi
3.1 mi lanes · 1.2 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
Platt Park
Park
8 acres0.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
Gartner Park
Park
36 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
4
Eberly Park
Park
25 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
All 16 parks & preserves
Showing 1–10 of 16 parks & preserves
Kilgour Park13 acres · 0.5 mi of trail
Platt Park8 acres · 0.5 mi of trail
Central Memorial Park3 acres · 0.2 mi of trail
Wallace Park3 acres · 0.2 mi of trail
Dillon Home7 acres · 0.1 mi of trail
Redfield Park4 acres · 0.1 mi of trail
Propheter Park3 acres · 0.1 mi of trail
Gartner Park36 acres
Eberly Park25 acres
Thomas Park12 acres
Things to do
Beaches, playgrounds, falls & more
Pick a kind of place for the list, directions, or pins on the map above.
Playgrounds in Sterling
Showing 1–10 of 13 playgrounds
Unnamed playground in Scheid Park
Unnamed playground in Wallace Park
Unnamed playground in Wallace Park
Unnamed playground in Wallace Park
Unnamed playground in Propheter Park
Unnamed playground in Lincoln Park
Unnamed playground in Kilgour Park
Unnamed playground
Unnamed playground
Unnamed playground
Trails
Named trails
Open to bikes 0.6 mi
- Sinnissippi Dam Walkway0.1 mi
Water
Lakes & rivers
Tap a name for directions.
Who protects the land
143 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes3.1 mi
- Off-road bike paths1.2 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Tennis14
- Basketball13
- Baseball10
- Soccer6
- Tracks6
- Pickleball6
- Football3
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Public lands
The biggest protected places in Sterling
From USGS PAD-US: who manages each one and whether visitors are welcome.
Local Park 134 acUnknown 5 acLocal Recreation Area 3 ac
Showing 1–10 of 15 places
| Place | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gartner ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 30 | Open |
| Eberly ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 24 | Open |
| Thomas ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 20 | Open |
| Kilgour ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 12 | Open |
| Scheid ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 12 | Open |
| Duis Recreation Center, Frasor Center Administrative Offices, and Skate ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 8 | Open |
| Platt ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 7 | Open |
| Dillon Home Museum and Martin's Landing & Sinnissippi Dam WalkwayUnknown | Town or city | 5 | Open |
| Safety ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 5 | Open |
| Redfield ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 5 | Open |
History
Historic places to visit
Engine Number 73In Dillon Home · Locomotive
Calvary CemeteryCemetery
Nearby
Sterling and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sterling | 3.6% | 2.8 mi | 16 |
| Coloma | 2.8% | 2.9 mi | 17 |
| Sterling | 2.1% | 5.5 mi | 19 |
| Rock Falls | 5.1% | 1.8 mi | 14 |
| Hopkins | 0.8% | 1.8 mi | 4 |
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.