1
Bear Creek Pioneers Park
Park
2,174 acres23.1 mi of trail
Plummer TraceHigh Road ConnectorEldridge View TrailBoy Scout Field Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Houston
Houston, TX parks, trails & bike paths
About 11% of Houston is conserved land, roughly 44,899 acres. There are about 440 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Bear Creek Pioneers Park (23.1 mi), George Bush Park (18.7 mi), and Hermann Park (12.1 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Houston, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Houston outdoors
Conserved land
11%
44,899 of 427,897 acres
Trails
440 mi
0.7 mi per sq mi · 243 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
306
19 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
543.7 mi
221.4 mi lanes · 306.6 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
George Bush Park
Park
8,030 acres18.7 mi of trail
Barker Dam
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
Hermann Park
Managed by Houston Parks and Recreation Department
430 acres12.1 mi of trail
Marvin Taylor Exercise TrailGreenway
Dog rules not recorded
4
Terry Hershey Park
Nature preserve
533 acres11.6 mi of trail
Anthills
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
5
Memorial Park
Managed by Houston Parks and Recreation Department
1,447 acres11.1 mi of trail
Outer LoopSeymour Lieberman Exercise TrailRavine TrailCouch Birding Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
6
East End Park
Park
260 acres5.2 mi of trail
South Loop TrailNorth Loop TrailPelican Overlook Loop TrailEagle Point TrailMain Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
7
Houston Arboretum Park
Park
103 acres4.1 mi of trail
Outer LoopInner LoopRavine TrailWildflower TrailMuscadine Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
8
El Franco Lee Park
Park
388 acres3.5 mi of trail
Hail Cesar! 2.0Slowpoke RodriguezGator RunSilo Ridge
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
All 306 parks & preserves
Showing 1–10 of 306 parks & preserves
Bear Creek Pioneers Park2,174 acres · 23.1 mi of trail
George Bush Park8,030 acres · 18.7 mi of trail
Hermann Park430 acres · 12.1 mi of trail · Houston Parks and Recreation Department
Terry Hershey Park533 acres · 11.6 mi of trail
Memorial Park1,447 acres · 11.1 mi of trail · Houston Parks and Recreation Department
East End Park260 acres · 5.2 mi of trail
Houston Arboretum Park103 acres · 4.1 mi of trail
El Franco Lee Park388 acres · 3.5 mi of trail
Lake Houston Wilderness Park618 acres · 2.4 mi of trail
Alexander Deussen Park309 acres · 2.4 mi of trail
Who protects the land
44,899 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 5,123 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 16 of 877 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes221.4 mi
- Off-road bike paths306.6 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes15.7 mi
- Anthills (bike route)8.7 mi
Courts & fields
- Tennis965
- Soccer449
- Baseball448
- Basketball303
- Football106
- Pickleball85
- Golf68
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Nearby
Houston and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | 10.5% | 440.3 mi | 306 |
| Channelview | 0.7% | 0.8 mi | 2 |
| Spring | 17.5% | 24.6 mi | 12 |
| Atascocita | 1.6% | 26.2 mi | 21 |
| Mission Bend | 1% | 1.2 mi | 4 |
| Fresno | 0.2% | 0.9 mi | 2 |
| Cinco Ranch | 0.2% | 0.3 mi | 5 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Houston'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 156.5-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.