1
Battle Park
Park
90 acres2.8 mi of trail
OWASA AccessSourwood LoopRainy Day TrailBent Beech TrailLovers' Loop
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC parks, trails & bike paths
About 12% of Chapel Hill is conserved land, roughly 1,671 acres. There are about 78 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Battle Park (2.8 mi), Cedar Falls Park (2.6 mi), and Coker Pinetum (1.4 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Chapel Hill, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Chapel Hill outdoors
Conserved land
12%
1,671 of 13,890 acres
Trails
78 mi
3.6 mi per sq mi · 38 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
25
27 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
56.4 mi
26.4 mi lanes · 21.4 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
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
Cedar Falls Park
Park
74 acres2.6 mi of trail
Cedar Falls Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the trail sign
3
Coker Pinetum
Nature preserve
35 acres1.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
Greendale Park
Park
15 acres1 mi of trail
Battle Branch Trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
5
Pritchard Park
Park
35 acres0.9 mi of trail
Library Loop
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
6
William L. Hunt Arboretum
Managed by NC Botanical Garden (UNC)
15 acres0.7 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
7
Southern Community Park
Park
67 acres0.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
8
North Forest Hills Park
Park
9 acres0.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
All 25 parks & preserves
Showing 1–10 of 25 parks & preserves
Battle Park90 acres · 2.8 mi of trail
Cedar Falls Park74 acres · 2.6 mi of trail
Coker Pinetum35 acres · 1.4 mi of trail
Greendale Park15 acres · 1 mi of trail
Pritchard Park35 acres · 0.9 mi of trail
William L. Hunt Arboretum15 acres · 0.7 mi of trail · NC Botanical Garden (UNC)
Southern Community Park67 acres · 0.4 mi of trail
North Forest Hills Park9 acres · 0.4 mi of trail
Umstead Park24 acres · 0.3 mi of trail
Emily Braswell Perry Park4 acres · 0.2 mi of trail
Who protects the land
1,671 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 37 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 19 of 63 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes26.4 mi
- Off-road bike paths21.4 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes8.6 mi
Courts & fields
- Tennis106
- Basketball32
- Beach volleyball21
- Soccer20
- Golf19
- Baseball15
- Football6
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Nearby
Chapel Hill and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Chapel Hill'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.