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recreationMaster Score

Score

Outdoor Access

Comprehensive nature and recreation composite from local parks, trails, regional outdoor-gateway access, water, National Park access, mountain views, beaches, skiing, warm beaches, and surf.

Scale0-100

Higher values rank better for this score.

How It's Calculated

The latest published score is normalized to a 0-100 scale. The method below explains what the score rewards, with technical source metadata available for audit.

Scoring Method

How the ranking is built

Outdoor Access is the comprehensive nature and recreation composite, blending everyday parks and trails with regional outdoor-gateway access, water, national parks, mountain views, beaches, skiing, warm beaches, and surf.

  1. 1

    The score is a weighted average of already-computed 0-100 component scores.

  2. 2

    Weights are 18% Trail Access, 16% Park Access, 14% Regional Outdoor Gateway, 12% Water Access, 10% National Park Access, 10% Mountain Views, 7% Beach Access, 6% Ski Access, 4% Warm Beach Access, and 3% Surf Access.

  3. 3

    Mountain Views and Ski Access are pulled from the latest published master scores when available

  4. 4

    missing values are imputed as neutral 50s.

Technical details
Score TypeMaster Score

Read from the current master score table for this criterion.

Ranking BasisSingle Score

The top 10 below ignore your blended relocation weights and sort only by Outdoor Access.

No source details available for this score.

What This Score Means

Outdoor Access is the comprehensive nature and recreation composite, blending everyday parks and trails with regional outdoor-gateway access, water, national parks, mountain views, beaches, skiing, warm beaches, and surf.

Statistics Feeding This Score

  • Parks, local trails, and regional gateways

    Published park, local trail, and regional outdoor-gateway components from mapped outdoor places and related outdoor scores.

    Source: Published score components
  • Water, beaches, and surf

    Published water, beach, warm-beach, and surf access components.

    Source: Published score components
  • National parks

    Published National Park Access component, weighted toward larger, scenic, and iconic NPS units.

    Source: Published score components
  • Mountain views and skiing

    Published Mountain Views and Ski Access components when available; missing values are treated as neutral 50s.

    Source: Published score components

Source Data

Source: Overture PlacesMapped point-of-interest records used for amenities and outdoor recreation.Source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, annual/seasonalNOAA NCEI 1991-2020 station normals matched to places using nearby stations, with distance and elevation mismatch penalties.Source: OpenSkiMap and OpenStreetMap ski-area dataOperating U.S. downhill ski areas with mapped runs, lifts, and elevation statistics.Source: USGS Geographic Names Information SystemDomestic named terrain features such as summits, ridges, ranges, cliffs, pillars, and gaps.
Source: USGS 3DEP Elevation servicesElevation samples used for place elevation, feature elevation, and relative-relief calculations.
Source: Published score componentsAlready-published Places component scores reused as inputs to a composite score.

Known Limits

  • This is a broad affinity score, not a guarantee that every outdoor activity is excellent in a place.
  • Mapped-feature coverage varies by source and may miss informal parks, trails, beaches, surf spots, or ski metadata.
  • Distance is straight-line proximity, not drive time, seasonality, crowds, permits, prices, snow quality, water quality, or current conditions.

Top 10 Locations

Ranked by Outdoor Access.

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