Running trails in Jamestown, NY
Jamestown has 11 trails in the directory — 5 on crushed gravel or dirt and 1 boardwalk. 7 of them post opening hours, so you can check the gate before an early start. They're ranked here by rating weighted by review volume, across 2,389 Google reviews. Filter by surface, loop, distance, shade or lighting to get to the run you're actually planning — no made-up difficulty score, just the facts you'd check before driving out.
Lucille Ball Memorial Park
4.5 ★★★★★ 1,079 reviews
Park on Chautauqua Lake featuring statues of Lucille Ball, a boat launch & a playground.
Audubon Community Nature Center
4.8 ★★★★★ 440 reviews
Nature center featuring hiking trails and an eagle rehab facility.
Allen Park
4.5 ★★★★★ 398 reviews
Site for various sports, picnicking with grills, sledding, a bandshell & an exercise course.
Bergman Park
4.6 ★★★★★ 313 reviews
Well-maintained public space with baseball fields, a basketball court and a playground.
Bentley Nature Preserve
4.4 ★★★★☆ 52 reviews
Hiking area with trails that are good for kids.
Jamestown River Walk
4.3 ★★★★☆ 48 reviews
Park featuring picnic tables, and fishing, as well as kid-friendly hiking trails.
Riverwalk
5 ★★★★★ 3 reviews
No trails match those filters.
How to pick a trail in Jamestown
- Match the surface to your legs. Jamestown gives you a choice: 5 natural surface, 1 boardwalk, and 1 mixed. Asphalt and concrete are fast, predictable and runnable year-round but the least forgiving; crushed limestone and dirt take the sting out of high mileage; boardwalk is flat and scenic but slick in the wet. If your shins or knees are complaining, the fix that actually works is varying the surface you run on rather than chasing one "best" one. More natural surface trails →
- Loop or out-and-back? A loop finishes back at the car with no backtracking; on an out-and-back you simply turn round at half your distance.
- Check the hours before a 6am run. Plenty of trails sit inside parks that gate at dusk and don't unlock until well after sunrise, so a trail that's perfect at lunchtime can be locked at 6am. 7 of the 11 listings carry posted opening hours — worth a look before you set an alarm. 5 are lit, which is what you want for winter evenings.
- Long run? Check water and restrooms first. 7 have trailhead parking and 3 have restrooms in Jamestown. Anything over an hour and those stop being nice-to-haves — and in summer, shade counts double.
- The small things that decide it. 3 that runners describe as quiet and 2 smooth and wide enough for a stroller or a wheelchair. Busy or quiet isn't a good-or-bad thing here: a busy path is the safer choice for a solo run at dawn, a quiet one is better for intervals.
More on all of this in the trail-running guides.
Browse Jamestown trails by type
Running trails near Jamestown
Worth the short drive — the closest towns with trails in the directory.