Outdoors · Sterling
Share Sterling, VA parks, trails & bike paths
About 11% of Sterling is conserved land, roughly 376 acres. There are about 13 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Claude Moore Park (10 mi) and Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park (1.6 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Sterling, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Share Sterling outdoors
Conserved land
11%
376 of 3,489 acres
Trails
13 mi
2.3 mi per sq mi · 12 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
5
12 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
5.2 mi
2.9 mi lanes · 2.1 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
🏊 Kids First Swimming School 🛝 Briar Patch Park Playgrounds 🛝 Discovery Park 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground in Sterling Community Center Park 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground in Cabin Branch Park 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground in Claude Moore Park 🛝 Unnamed playground in Claude Moore Park 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground in Gwen Thompson Briar Patch Park 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛝 Unnamed playground 🧺 Unnamed picnic area 1 2 3 4
Show all of Sterling
Places to walk
Parks & preserves with trails
Ranked by mapped trail miles. Directions go to the nearest marked trailhead or public parking.
1 Claude Moore Park Managed by Loudoun County Department of Parks and Recreation
347 acres10 mi of trail
Little Stoney Mountain Trail (White) Old Oak Trail (Orange) Southern Woods Trail (Black) Hickory Nut Trail (Red) Cedar Grove Trail (Purple)
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
2 Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park Managed by Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority
22 acres1.6 mi of trail
W&OD Bridle Trail
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
3 Gwen Thompson Briar Patch Park Park
4 acres
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
1 acres
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet Show on map
Things to do
Beaches, playgrounds, falls & more
Pick a kind of place for the list, directions, or pins on the map above.
Playgrounds in Sterling Show all on map
Showing 1–10 of 43 playgrounds
🛝 Briar Patch Park Playgrounds In Gwen Thompson Briar Patch Park
🛝 Unnamed playground in Sterling Community Center Park
Trails
Named trails
Open to bikes 2.8 mi Horses 5.0 mi Unpaved 10.6 mi
Little Stoney Mountain Trail (White) 2.7 mi W&OD Bridle Trail 1.9 mi Old Oak Trail (Orange) 0.8 mi Southern Woods Trail (Black) 0.6 mi Hickory Nut Trail (Red) 0.5 mi Cedar Grove Trail (Purple) 0.4 mi Beaver Slide Trail (Pink) 0.2 mi Black Willow Spring Trail (Green) 0.2 mi Who protects the land
376 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
Painted or protected bike lanes 2.9 mi Off-road bike paths 2.1 mi Shoulders & shared lanes 0.1 mi
Courts & fields Baseball 19 Basketball 14 Tennis 11 Softball 6 Soccer 2 Football 1 Beach volleyball 1 Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Public lands
The biggest protected places in Sterling
From USGS PAD-US: who manages each one and whether visitors are welcome.
Local Park 753 ac
Place Managed by Acres Public access
Claude Moore Park Local Park County 683 Open Washington and Old Dominion Trail Local Park Not recorded 52 Open Briar Patch Park Local Park County 10 Open Sterling Community Center Local Park Not recorded 7 Open
History
Historic places to visit
🪦 Sterling Cemetery Cemetery
Nearby
Share Sterling and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Sterling'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.
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