1
Half-Way Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Nature preserve
179 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Outdoors · Chicago
Chicago, ND parks, trails & bike paths
About 28% of Chicago is conserved land, roughly 6,307 acres. There are about 43 miles of mapped trails.
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Chicago, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Chicago outdoors
Conserved land
28%
6,307 of 22,499 acres
Trails
43 mi
1.2 mi per sq mi · 11 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
1
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
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.
Trails
Named trails
Unpaved 43.3 mi
- 59th Avenue Southeast2.8 mi
- 54th Avenue Southeast1.4 mi
- 40th Street Southeast1.1 mi
- 42nd Street Southeast1.1 mi
- 39th Street Southeast0.9 mi
- 56th Avenue Southeast0.9 mi
Who protects the land
6,307 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 5,587 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. 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
Public lands
The biggest protected places in Chicago
From USGS PAD-US: who manages each one and whether visitors are welcome.
Conservation Easement 6,223 acState Resource Management Area 579 acResource Management Area 281 ac
| Place | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nd State Lands - Surface OwnershipState Resource Management Area | State land board | 579 | Open |
| Stutsman County Waterfowl Production AreaResource Management Area | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | 281 | Restricted |
History
Historic places to visit
Saint Marys CemeteryCemetery
Nearby
Chicago and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago | 28% | 43.3 mi | 1 |
| Bloomenfield | 42.7% | 27.7 mi | 0 |
| St. Paul | 52.3% | 48.6 mi | 0 |
| Stirton | 23.1% | 36.3 mi | 0 |
| Medina | 19.1% | 1.8 mi | 0 |
| Flint | 39.8% | 39.1 mi | 1 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Chicago'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.