1
Catawba Meadows Park
Managed by City of Morganton
233 acres3 mi of trail
Catawba Meadows Park Nature Trail Disc Golf Course
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Morganton
Morganton, NC parks, trails & bike paths
About 5.4% of Morganton is conserved land, roughly 659 acres. There are about 9.6 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Catawba Meadows Park (3 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Morganton, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Morganton outdoors
Conserved land
5.4%
659 of 12,256 acres
Trails
9.6 mi
0.5 mi per sq mi · 3 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
14
37 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
13.0 mi
1.3 mi lanes · 11.7 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
Cascade Park
Park
6 acres0.3 mi of trail
Cascade Park Primary Trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
3
Freedom Park
Managed by Burke County Schools
52 acres0.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
Catawba River Greenway - Greenlee Ford & River Village Sections
Park
38 acres0.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
All 14 parks & preserves
Showing 1–10 of 14 parks & preserves
Catawba Meadows Park233 acres · 3 mi of trail · City of Morganton
Cascade Park6 acres · 0.3 mi of trail
Freedom Park52 acres · 0.1 mi of trail · Burke County Schools
Catawba River Greenway - Greenlee Ford & River Village Sections38 acres · 0.1 mi of trail
Catawba River Soccer Complex32 acres · City of Morganton
Bethel Park32 acres
Collett Street Park18 acres
Shuey Park16 acres
Martin Luther King Jr. Park13 acres · Morganton Parks and Recreation
Carbon City Park5 acres
Who protects the land
659 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 2 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 5 of 30 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes1.3 mi
- Off-road bike paths11.7 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Tennis24
- Golf21
- Baseball16
- Multi-sport6
- Football3
- Volleyball3
- Basketball1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Nearby
Morganton and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morganton | 5.4% | 9.6 mi | 14 |
| Glen Alpine | 1.8% | 0.1 mi | 2 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Morganton'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 24.1-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.