Sunset Beach Park
Park
6 acres0.3 mi of trail
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Outdoors in Sunset Beach
11 miles of trails in Sunset Beach
About 1.5% of Sunset Beach is conserved land, roughly 73 acres. There are about 11 miles of mapped trails.
Conserved land
1.5%
73 of 4,836 acres
Trails
11 mi
1.4 mi per sq mi
Parks & preserves
2
17 conserved acres per 1,000 people
Bike routes
1.9 mi
1.9 mi lanes
Lakes & rivers
2
3 beaches · 2 boat launches
What kind of outdoors town is Sunset Beach?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
This week on the trails
Best day for a walk: Tuesday
72°, slight chance rain showers then partly sunny, 15% chance of rain.
Tonight88° 71°2% rain
Sat86° 69°52% rain
Sun81° 64°86% rain
Mon76° 56°83% rain
Tue72° 52°15% rain
Wed74° 53°20% rain
The map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
★ What stands out · Places to walk
Pick a walk
The longest trail network is Sunset Beach Park, with 0.3 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Bird Island Reserve
Nature preserve
17 acres0.1 mi of trail
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Things to do
5 places to go in Sunset Beach
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
Beaches in Sunset Beach
Boat launches in Sunset Beach
Trails & water
3 named trails and 2 lakes & rivers
Named trails
Unpaved · 1.5 mi
40th Street Beach Access0.2 mi
35th Street Beach Access0.1 mi
14th Street Beach Access0.1 mi
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Who protects it
73 conserved acres
Who manages Sunset Beach’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Not recorded89 ac
State Other or Unknown · 82 acLocal Recreation Area · 5 acLocal Other or Unknown · 1 ac
Good to know
Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. Public access isn’t recorded for 2 of 5 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.
The biggest protected places
| Place | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bird Island Coastal Reserve State Other or Unknown | Not recorded | 65 | Open |
| NC Land and Water Fund Project State Other or Unknown | Not recorded | 16 | Restricted |
| Town of Sunset Beach - Sunset Beach Park Local Recreation Area | Not recorded | 5 | Open |
| NC Department of Transportation Mitigation Site State Other or Unknown | Not recorded | 2 | Unknown |
| Town of Sunset Beach Open Space Local Other or Unknown | Not recorded | 1 | Unknown |
Biking & sports
1.9 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
1.9 mi
painted or protected bike lanes
0.0 mi
off-road bike paths
0.0 mi
shoulders & shared lanes
Courts & fields
6Tennis
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
History along the way
History →1 old cemetery
Next door
Sunset Beach and its neighbors
Sunset Beach has the most mapped trails of the 2 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.
| Town | Conserved | Parks |
|---|---|---|
| Sunset Beach | 1.5% | 2 |
| Calabash | 0.2% | 0 |
Trail talk
Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Sunset Beach neighbors.
Weigh in
Is Sunset Beach Park the best walk in Sunset Beach?
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Share a tip
Trails, parks, preserves, courts and bike lanes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), map data as of 2026-09-28. Conserved land: USGS Gap Analysis Project, PAD-US. Measured against the Census town boundary. Forecast: National Weather Service.
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.