Outdoors · Big Rapids

Big Rapids, MI parks, trails & bike paths

About 3.8% of Big Rapids is conserved land, roughly 738 acres. There are about 3.5 miles of mapped trails.

Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Big Rapids, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.

At a glance

Big Rapids outdoors

Conserved land
3.8%
738 of 19,644 acres
Trails
3.5 mi
0.1 mi per sq mi · 2 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
3
185 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
3.7 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 3.7 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

123
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.
1

High Banks Park

Park
20 acres0.2 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
2

Community Pool

Managed by City of Big Rapids
6 acres
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3

Clay Cliffs Nature Area

Managed by City of Big Rapids
1 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Who protects the land

738 conserved acres

Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
U.S. Forest Service
250 ac
Private owners
245 ac
Other state land
143 ac
County
83 ac
Town or city
16 ac

Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 36 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. 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 paths3.7 mi
  • Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi

Courts & fields

  • Tennis18
  • Baseball5
  • Soccer2
  • Football1
  • Basketball1
  • Beach volleyball1

Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.

Nearby

Big Rapids and its neighbors

Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
TownConservedTrailsParks & preserves
Big Rapids3.8%3.5 mi3
Colfax6%2.5 mi5
Mecosta2.4%16.0 mi3
Norwich37.1%31.5 mi2
Green2.6%6.7 mi3
Trail talk

Conditions & tips from neighbors

No recent posts about Big Rapids'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.

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Big Rapids

Michigan · MI · Mecosta County
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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/15 · 2025-01-01