71% of Iowa is wild, conserved land
There are about 42 miles of mapped trails.
What kind of outdoors town is Iowa?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
2 named trails and 1 lakes & rivers
16,290 conserved acres
Who manages Iowa’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 15,588 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. The walks above are places people visit.
| Place | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benson County Waterfowl Production Area Resource Management Area | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | 1,084 | Restricted |
| Nd State Lands - Surface Ownership State Resource Management Area | State land board | 158 | Open |
Iowa and its neighbors
Iowa has the most mapped trails of the 5 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.
| Town | Conserved | Parks |
|---|---|---|
| Iowa | 71.4% | 0 |
| Twin Lake | 70.3% | 0 |
| Pleasant Lake | 51.5% | 1 |
| Reno Valley | 50.2% | 0 |
| Impark | 71.1% | 0 |
Trail talk
Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Iowa neighbors.
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.
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.