1
Mills River Park
Park
46 acres1.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Mills River
Mills River, NC parks, trails & bike paths
About 3.3% of Mills River is conserved land, roughly 467 acres. There are about 4.4 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Mills River Park (1.1 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Mills River, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Mills River outdoors
Conserved land
3.3%
467 of 14,376 acres
Trails
4.4 mi
0.2 mi per sq mi · 2 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
2
64 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
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
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
Pisgah National Forest
Managed by United States Forest Service
11 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Things to do
Beaches, playgrounds, falls & more
Pick a kind of place for the list, directions, or pins on the map above.
Peaks in Mills River
Forge Mountain3,278 ft elevation
Chestnut Top3,087 ft elevation
Mills Knob2,746 ft elevation
Trails
Named trails
Unpaved 1.4 mi
- Vinyard Gap0.1 mi
Water
Lakes & rivers
Forge Mountain Grist Mill LakereservoirHollaman LakereservoirLyday LakereservoirFrench Broad RiverMills RiverSouth Fork Mills River
Tap a name for directions.
Who protects the land
467 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 7 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 9 of 16 parcels. 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 paths0.0 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Basketball3
- Tennis3
- Soccer3
- Pickleball2
- Baseball1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Public lands
The biggest protected places in Mills River
From USGS PAD-US: who manages each one and whether visitors are welcome.
State Other or Unknown 378 acLocal Park 51 acUnknown Easement 28 acLocal Other or Unknown 21 acPrivate Conservation 18 ac
| Place | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain Horticultural Crops Research StationState Other or Unknown | Not recorded | 339 | Access unknown |
| Mills River ParkLocal Park | Town or city | 51 | Open |
| NC Land and Water Fund ProjectState Other or Unknown | Not recorded | 38 | Restricted |
| Town of Mills River Open SpaceLocal Other or Unknown | Not recorded | 18 | Access unknown |
| Conserving Carolina - Brittain Nature PreservePrivate Conservation | Not recorded | 18 | Access unknown |
| Pisgah National ForestNational Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 10 | Open |
| Henderson County Open SpaceLocal Other or Unknown | Not recorded | 3 | Access unknown |
| NC Land and Water Fund Conservation AgreementState Other or Unknown | Not recorded | 1 | Restricted |
History
Historic places to visit
Jones CemeteryCemetery
Mills River Church GraveyardCemetery
Nearby
Mills River and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mills River | 3.3% | 4.4 mi | 2 |
| Etowah | 5.8% | 4.8 mi | 1 |
| Horse Shoe | 9.3% | 0.2 mi | 1 |
| Fletcher | 5.3% | 5.3 mi | 2 |
| Asheville | 4.3% | 26.7 mi | 42 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Mills River'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 25-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.