Outdoors · French
Share French, MN parks, trails & bike paths
About 39% of French is conserved land, roughly 9,141 acres. There are about 20 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Sturgeon River State Forest (5.2 mi) and McCarthy Beach State Park (4.9 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in French, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Share French outdoors
Conserved land
39%
9,141 of 23,493 acres
Trails
20 mi
0.5 mi per sq mi · 10 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
4
named on the map
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
🏕️ McCarthy Beach State Park Campground 1 2 3 4
Show all of French
Places to walk
Parks & preserves with trails
Ranked by mapped trail miles. Directions go to the nearest marked trailhead or public parking.
1 Sturgeon River State Forest Managed by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
6,947 acres5.2 mi of trail
Taconite State Trail County Road 501
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet Show on map
Website
2 McCarthy Beach State Park Park
2,193 acres4.9 mi of trail
Taconite State Trail
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet Show on map
Website
3 Superior National Forest Managed by United States Forest Service
375 acres
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet Show on map
Website
4 George Washington State Forest Managed by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
1 acres
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet Show on map
Website
Things to do
Beaches, playgrounds, falls & more
Pick a kind of place for the list, directions, or pins on the map above.
Campgrounds in French Show all on map
🏕️ McCarthy Beach State Park Campground Fee · In McCarthy Beach State Park
Trails
Named trails
Taconite State Trail 7.4 mi North Bay Trail 1.4 mi County Road 501 0.6 mi Water
Lakes & rivers
Showing 1–10 of 11 places
Tap a name for directions.
Who protects the land
9,141 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
State natural resources
7,014 ac U.S. Forest Service
373 ac State fish & wildlife
8 ac Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
Painted or protected bike lanes 0.0 mi Off-road bike paths 0.0 mi Shoulders & shared lanes 0.0 mi
Public lands
The biggest protected places in French
From USGS PAD-US: who manages each one and whether visitors are welcome.
State Resource Management Area 7,014 ac State Park 1,813 ac National Forest 373 ac State Conservation Area 8 ac
Place Managed by Acres Public access
Sturgeon River State Forest State Resource Management Area State natural resources 7,013 Open McCarthy Beach State Park State Park State parks 1,813 Open Superior National Forest National Forest U.S. Forest Service 373 Open Sand Creek II State Aquatic Management Area (St. Louis) State Conservation Area State fish & wildlife 8 Restricted George Washington State Forest State Resource Management Area State natural resources 1 Open
Nearby
Share French and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
Town Conserved Trails Parks & preserves
French 38.9% 20.1 mi 4 Bearville 23.3% 36.3 mi 3 Sturgeon 44.2% 13.1 mi 2 Morcom 45.1% 5.2 mi 1
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about French'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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