Outdoors · Ely

Ely, MI parks, trails & bike paths

About 5.6% of Ely is conserved land, roughly 5,031 acres. There are about 102 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Escanaba River State Forest - Gwinn Unit (South) (36.6 mi) and Escanaba River State Forest - Gwinn Unit (1 mi).

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

At a glance

Ely outdoors

Conserved land
5.6%
5,031 of 89,414 acres
Trails
102 mi
0.7 mi per sq mi · 7 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
5
2,730 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
6.4 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 6.4 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

1234
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

Escanaba River State Forest - Gwinn Unit (South)

Managed by Michigan Department of Natural Resources
25,793 acres36.6 mi of trail
County Road Ccx
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
2

Escanaba River State Forest - Gwinn Unit

Managed by Michigan Department of Natural Resources
2,009 acres1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
3

South Ely Township Park

Park
4 acres0.3 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
4

Escanaba River State Forest - Gwinn Unit (North)

Managed by Michigan Department of Natural Resources
2,009 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Who protects the land

5,031 conserved acres

Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Private owners
5,027 ac
State natural resources
3 ac
Land trusts & nonprofits
1 ac
Biking & sports

Bike routes, courts & fields

  • Painted or protected bike lanes0.0 mi
  • Off-road bike paths6.4 mi
  • Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi

Courts & fields

  • Baseball2
  • Tennis1

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

Nearby

Ely and its neighbors

Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
TownConservedTrailsParks & preserves
Ely5.6%102.1 mi5
Tilden9.3%34.3 mi3
Humboldt4.6%86.9 mi3
Champion3.2%160.8 mi6
Ishpeming1.5%94.7 mi4
West Branch77.4%74.9 mi3
Felch68.2%185.1 mi6
Trail talk

Conditions & tips from neighbors

No recent posts about Ely'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 38.6-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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Ely

Michigan · MI · Marquette 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