1
Mill Race Park
Park
83 acres2.4 mi of trail
Columbus People Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Columbus
Columbus, IN parks, trails & bike paths
About 2.4% of Columbus is conserved land, roughly 455 acres. There are about 21 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Mill Race Park (2.4 mi), Pauline Crump Nature Preserve (1.1 mi), and Clifty Creek Park (1 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Columbus, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Columbus outdoors
Conserved land
2.4%
455 of 19,342 acres
Trails
21 mi
0.7 mi per sq mi · 4 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
14
9 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
48.2 mi
10.4 mi lanes · 30.9 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
Pauline Crump Nature Preserve
Nature preserve
42 acres1.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
Clifty Creek Park
Park
64 acres1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
Noblitt Park
Park
68 acres
Dog rules not recorded
All 14 parks & preserves
Showing 1–10 of 14 parks & preserves
Mill Race Park83 acres · 2.4 mi of trail
Pauline Crump Nature Preserve42 acres · 1.1 mi of trail
Clifty Creek Park64 acres · 1 mi of trail
Donner Park33 acres · 0.2 mi of trail
Courthouse Square2 acres · 0.2 mi of trail
Blackwell Park42 acres · 0.1 mi of trail
Noblitt Park68 acres
Lincoln Park34 acres
Oakbrook Park9 acres
Richards School Park7 acres · Columbus Parks and Recreation Department
Things to do
Beaches, playgrounds, falls & more
Pick a kind of place for the list, directions, or pins on the map above.
Playgrounds in Columbus
Showing 1–10 of 23 playgrounds
Freedom Field Park
Unnamed playground in Oakbrook Park
Unnamed playground in Harrison Ridge Park
Unnamed playground
Unnamed playground
Unnamed playground
Unnamed playground
Unnamed playground in Mill Race Park
Unnamed playground in Donner Park
Unnamed playground
Trails
Named trails
Open to bikes 2.4 miUnpaved 0.8 mi
- Columbus People Trail0.8 mi
- County Road North 150 West0.2 mi
Water
Lakes & rivers
Tap a name for directions.
Who protects the land
455 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 20 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 1 of 18 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes10.4 mi
- Off-road bike paths30.9 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes7.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Tennis43
- Baseball29
- Basketball24
- Pickleball10
- Football7
- Soccer3
- Softball2
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Public lands
The biggest protected places in Columbus
From USGS PAD-US: who manages each one and whether visitors are welcome.
Local Park 343 acLocal Recreation Area 92 acConservation Easement 20 ac
Showing 1–10 of 15 places
| Place | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mill Race ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 94 | Open |
| Clifty Creek ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 76 | Open |
| Blackwell ParkLocal Recreation Area | Town or city | 59 | Open |
| Noblitt ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 50 | Open |
| Lincoln ParkLocal Recreation Area | Town or city | 33 | Open |
| Donner ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 33 | Open |
| Mccolloughs Run ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 31 | Open |
| Everroad ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 22 | Open |
| Eigth St ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 10 | Open |
| Oakbrook ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 10 | Open |
History
Historic places to visit
Showing 1–10 of 11 places
Crump MonumentStele · 1917
First Baptist Church ColumbariumTomb
Ruddick MonumentStatue
War MemorialMonument
Carl Miske DriveIn Mill Race Park
Burnett-Bonnell CemeteryCemetery
Columbus City CemeteryCemetery
Garland Brook CemeteryCemetery
Liberty CemeteryCemetery
Mount Pleasant CemeteryCemetery
Nearby
Columbus and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Columbus'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 29.9-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.