1
Lancaster Town Forest
Nature preserve
325 acres3.2 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Lancaster
Lancaster, MA parks, trails & bike paths
About 14% of Lancaster is conserved land, roughly 2,429 acres. There are about 26 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Lancaster Town Forest (3.2 mi), Chapman-Goodale Conservation Land (2.5 mi), and Cook Conservation Area (1.9 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Lancaster, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Lancaster outdoors
Conserved land
14%
2,429 of 17,809 acres
Trails
26 mi
0.9 mi per sq mi · 14 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
14
282 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
0.0 mi
0.0 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
Chapman-Goodale Conservation Land
Nature preserve
268 acres2.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
3
Cook Conservation Area
Nature preserve
102 acres1.9 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
Thayer Memorial Forest
Nature preserve
98 acres1.2 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
5
Bolton Flats Wildlife Management Area
Nature preserve
557 acres1 mi of trail
Bolton Flats Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
All 14 parks & preserves
- Fitchurg State College Conservation Land71 ac
- Confarm Forest65 ac · Directions
- Parker Family Woods61 ac
- Chickering Conservation Land10 ac
- Bartlett Pond Conservation Area9 ac · Directions
- Conservation Com Land7 ac
- Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge3 ac · Directions
- Cosimi Conservation Area2 ac
- Route 117 Canoe Launch1 ac · Directions
Who protects the land
2,429 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 59 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 3 of 92 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 paths0.0 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Soccer19
- Basketball11
- Baseball3
- Tennis2
- Beach volleyball1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
Lancaster and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lancaster | 13.6% | 26.2 mi | 14 |
| Harvard | 30.2% | 96.8 mi | 144 |
| Leominster | 34.5% | 68.4 mi | 29 |
| Bolton | 29.4% | 64.5 mi | 38 |
| Clinton | 15.1% | 10.0 mi | 8 |
| Sterling | 37% | 25.7 mi | 19 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Lancaster'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 21.5-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.