1
Elm Creek Park Reserve
Managed by Three Rivers Park District
2,821 acres18.5 mi of trail
Hayden LoopMeadowlark TrailMonarch TrailHeron TrailSumac Trail
Dog rules not recorded
Outdoors · Dayton
Dayton, MN parks, trails & bike paths
About 20% of Dayton is conserved land, roughly 3,267 acres. There are about 22 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Elm Creek Park Reserve (18.5 mi) and Dayton Central Park (0.6 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Dayton, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Dayton outdoors
Conserved land
20%
3,267 of 16,006 acres
Trails
22 mi
0.9 mi per sq mi · 19 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
15
359 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
28.9 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 28.9 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
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
Dayton Central Park
Park
29 acres0.6 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
Mississippi West Regional Park
Managed by Anoka County Parks
79 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Website
4
River Hills Park
Managed by City of Dayton
23 acres
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
All 15 parks & preserves
Showing 1–10 of 15 parks & preserves
Elm Creek Park Reserve2,821 acres · 18.5 mi of trail · Three Rivers Park District
Dayton Central Park29 acres · 0.6 mi of trail
Sundance Woods Park4 acres · 0.1 mi of trail · City of Dayton Parks and Recreation
Mississippi West Regional Park79 acres · Anoka County Parks
River Hills Park23 acres · City of Dayton
Elsie Stephens Park21 acres · City of Dayton Parks and Recreation
Cloquet Island Scenic Overlook19 acres
Wildwood Springs Park11 acres · City of Dayton Parks and Recreation
Goodin Park6 acres · City of Dayton Parks and Recreation
Old Orchards Park6 acres · City of Dayton Parks and Recreation
Who protects the land
3,267 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 11 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 paths28.9 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Baseball3
- Basketball2
- Pickleball2
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Nearby
Dayton and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Dayton'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.