1
Bearsden Conservation Area
Nature preserve
1,599 acres15.3 mi of trail
Round Top TrailDeep Cut Bypass TrailMandell Road TrailThousand Acre Brook TrailPipeline Trail
Dog rules not recorded
Outdoors · Athol
Athol, MA parks, trails & bike paths
About 28% of Athol is conserved land, roughly 6,019 acres. There are about 38 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Bearsden Conservation Area (15.3 mi), Millers River WMA (5 mi), and South Athol Conservation Area (3.1 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Athol, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Athol outdoors
Conserved land
28%
6,019 of 21,221 acres
Trails
38 mi
1.1 mi per sq mi · 29 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
16
501 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
0.5 mi
0.5 mi lanes · 0.0 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
Millers River Wildlife Management Area
Nature preserve
2,151 acres5 mi of trail
Thousand Acre Brook TrailObservation Hill Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the trailhead
3
South Athol Conservation Area
Nature preserve
214 acres3.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
4
Skyfields Arboretum
Managed by Mount Grace Conservation Trust
37 acres1.3 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
5
Tully River Reservation
Nature preserve
74 acres0.7 mi of trail
Tully Lake Loop Trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
All 16 parks & preserves
- Neale Conservation Area29 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- Silver Lake Park25 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Uptown Common1 ac · 0.1 mi trail
- Petersham State Forest163 ac
- Cass Meadow Conservation Area21 ac
- Tully Brook Conservation Area21 ac
- Minnie French Cons. Area18 ac
- Fish Park5 ac · Directions
- Little League Park3 ac
- Tully Mountain Wildlife Management Area1 ac
- Lake Park1 ac · Directions
Who protects the land
6,019 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 1,436 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 4 of 118 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes0.5 mi
- Off-road bike paths0.0 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Equestrian5
- Baseball3
- Softball3
- Tennis2
- Basketball2
- Soccer1
- Football1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
Athol and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athol | 28.4% | 37.9 mi | 16 |
| Orange | 33.1% | 14.3 mi | 30 |
| Phillipston | 41% | 15.9 mi | 12 |
| Royalston | 36.4% | 36.2 mi | 36 |
| Petersham | 61.5% | 74.0 mi | 18 |
| New Salem | 62.3% | 17.3 mi | 7 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Athol'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 24.3-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.