1
McCarthy Youth & Conservation County Park
Managed by Dane County Parks
286 acres6.7 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Sun Prairie
Sun Prairie, WI parks, trails & bike paths
About 1.2% of Sun Prairie is conserved land, roughly 227 acres. There are about 8.2 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in McCarthy Youth & Conservation County Park (6.7 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Sun Prairie, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Sun Prairie outdoors
Conserved land
1.2%
227 of 18,822 acres
Trails
8.2 mi
0.3 mi per sq mi · 1 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
3
113 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
9.0 mi
0.8 mi lanes · 0.4 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
Patrick Marsh Wildlife Area
Nature preserve
81 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
3
Sheehan Park
Park
3 acres
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Who protects the land
227 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 121 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 lanes0.8 mi
- Off-road bike paths0.4 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes7.8 mi
Nearby
Sun Prairie and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Prairie | 1.2% | 8.2 mi | 3 |
| Sun Prairie | 5.8% | 6.9 mi | 45 |
| Cottage Grove | 3.3% | 0.7 mi | 9 |
| Medina | 3.2% | 18.3 mi | 1 |
| Cottage Grove | 3.4% | 3.0 mi | 1 |
| Bristol | 2.4% | 1.8 mi | 5 |
| Burke | 13.4% | 10.1 mi | 9 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Sun Prairie'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.