1
Green Mountain National Forest
Managed by United States Forest Service
5,425 acres16.5 mi of trail
East Dorset TrailBeech RidgeLower Beech Ridge
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Outdoors · Dorset
Dorset, VT parks, trails & bike paths
About 32% of Dorset is conserved land, roughly 9,662 acres. There are about 77 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Green Mountain National Forest (16.5 mi), Owls Head Town Forest (6.8 mi), and Raptor Lane Town Property (5.3 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Dorset, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Dorset outdoors
Conserved land
32%
9,662 of 30,217 acres
Trails
77 mi
1.6 mi per sq mi · 37 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
7
4,619 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
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.
2
Owls Head Town Forest
Nature preserve
265 acres6.8 mi of trail
Lunch (bike)Maple Creemee (bike)Gettysberm (bike)Gilberts Lookout (Blue)Gettysburg Alternative (Yellow)
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
3
Raptor Lane Town Property
Nature preserve
324 acres5.3 mi of trail
Sidehill Wampus (bike)TBN Downhill (bike)Lunch (bike)TBN Traverse (bike)Entrance (Green)
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
Big Branch Wilderness
Managed by United States Forest Service
430 acres0.7 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Website
5
Mount Aeolus Natural Area
Nature preserve
273 acres0.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
All 7 parks & preserves
- Robert T. Stafford White Rocks National Recreation Area430 ac
- Black Rock Natural Area37 ac
Who protects the land
9,662 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 1,750 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 28 of 83 parcels. 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
Courts & fields
- Tennis13
- Basketball1
- Soccer1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
Dorset and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dorset | 32% | 77.3 mi | 7 |
| Danby | 26% | 22.0 mi | 1 |
| Mount Tabor | 95.5% | 39.7 mi | 4 |
| Manchester | 33.5% | 55.0 mi | 4 |
| Rupert | 30.2% | 52.3 mi | 2 |
| Peru | 73.5% | 32.6 mi | 5 |
| Winhall | 61% | 62.8 mi | 3 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Dorset'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 23.2-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.