Outdoors · Nelson

Nelson, MI parks, trails & bike paths

About 7.6% of Nelson is conserved land, roughly 1,754 acres. There are about 2.6 miles of mapped trails.

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

At a glance

Nelson outdoors

Conserved land
7.6%
1,754 of 22,940 acres
Trails
2.6 mi
0.1 mi per sq mi · 1 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
3
355 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
4.9 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 4.9 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

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

Gordon Park

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

Boomer Park

Park
12 acres0.2 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
3

Salisbury Park

Park
4 acres0.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Who protects the land

1,754 conserved acres

Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
State natural resources
1,083 ac
USDA easements (NRCS)
353 ac
Private owners
278 ac
County
26 ac
Other state land
10 ac
Town or city
8 ac

Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 363 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 paths4.9 mi
  • Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi

Courts & fields

  • Soccer11
  • Baseball7
  • Tennis2
  • Basketball1
  • Football1

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

Nearby

Nelson and its neighbors

Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
TownConservedTrailsParks & preserves
Nelson7.6%2.6 mi3
Cedar Springs28.8%2.0 mi3
Spencer2.8%6.8 mi6
Courtland2.7%4.0 mi4
Pierson3.8%5.4 mi2
Trail talk

Conditions & tips from neighbors

No recent posts about Nelson'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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Nelson

Michigan · MI · Kent 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