1
Governor Knowles State Forest
Nature preserve
5,202 acres11.3 mi of trail
Sunrise Ferry Hiking TrailElectric Line TrailTown Road 31
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Outdoors · Sterling
Sterling, WI parks, trails & bike paths
About 38% of Sterling is conserved land, roughly 15,632 acres. There are about 29 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Governor Knowles State Forest (11.3 mi), Polk County Forest-Sterling Block (6.1 mi), and Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway (2.3 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Sterling, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Sterling outdoors
Conserved land
38%
15,632 of 40,982 acres
Trails
29 mi
0.5 mi per sq mi · 20 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
6
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.
2
Polk County Forest-Sterling Block
Nature preserve
8,602 acres6.1 mi of trail
Electric Line TrailSunrise Ferry Hiking Trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
3
Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway
Managed by National Park Service
691 acres2.3 mi of trail
Town Road 31Sunrise Ferry Hiking Trail
Dogs usually limitedNational parks restrict dogs on most trails. Check posted rules
No trailhead mapped yet
Website
4
Wild River State Park
Managed by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
20 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Website
Who protects the land
15,632 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 33 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
Courts & fields
- Baseball1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Nearby
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 26.9-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.