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The most immersive urban parks in America
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items When Frederick Law Olmsted created Central Park—and the concept of the public urban park as we know it—he envisioned a green oasis that could serve as the “lungs of the city" by removing pollutants from the air. But parks also offer city residents an...
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East Coast
Midwest
West Coast
East Coast
Central Park is generally considered the top park of New York, but up in the Bronx, an even bigger and more rustic green space beckons to adventurous visitors. Van Cortlandt Park contains long, wandering paths that visit ponds, boglands, deciduous fo...
Van Cortlandt Park (New York)
More than 2,000 tree species call Arnold Arboretum home. Tucked in Jamaica Plain, one of Boston's greenest and most joyfully walkable neighborhoods, this palatial 281-acre sanctuary will make you fall in love with the overstory. Be sure to check out ...
Arnold Arboretum (Boston)
America's third national park is a veritable forest located on the north side of the capital! Come for the maze of trails that snake through hardwoods and rippling waterways, and then go deeper by checking out the old machinery at the preserved onsit...
Rock Creek Park (Washington DC)
As the 19th largest metro area park in the U.S., William B. Umstead State Park is a proven retreat for Raleigh residents seeking relief from the stressors of city life. Its lakes and feeder streams are popular fishing destinations, the labyrinth of h...
William B. Umstead State Park (Raleigh)
Atlanta's biggest green space is also one of its newest. Westside Park was made possible by the creation of a new city reservoir in 2020, and the resultant park is a dreamy menage of wooded trails, lounging lawns, and overlooks that offer killer view...
Westside Park (Atlanta)
Midwest
When it comes to urban parks, there are green spaces, and then there's blue space: immense bodies of water adjacent to metro hubs, that are immersive in their own way. Chicago's Lincoln Park is an epic example. This 1,214 acre oasis stretches along t...
Lincoln Park (Chicago)
A verdant giant in the heart of “The Lou,” Forest Park earns its moniker with more than 1,300 acres of greenery that alternates between sculpted parkscape and shaggier parcels of urban woodlands. Be sure to climb the stairs to the World's Fair Pavili...
Forest Park (St. Louis)
10 miles south of downtown Dallas, a miracle has occurred. Trinity River, a former illegal dumping site, has been cleaned up and rehabilitated into a thriving sanctuary for birds (and other wild residents.) The hiking trails that run through the wood...
Trinity River Audubon Center (Dallas)
Towering limestone cliffs, gentle riverside pathways, and blooming gardens are among the scenic highlights in this Minneapolis juggernaut, which is one of the oldest and most beloved parks in the city. But the real showstopper here is Minnehaha Falls...
Minnehaha Regional Park (Minneapolis)
Not many city parks function as a doorway to stunning mountains, but Boulder's Chautauqua Park is a special standout. The picnic greens and forests here contain trailheads from which you can wheeze your way up the nearby Flatiron peaks. And when you'...
Chautauqua Park (Boulder)
West Coast
Los Angeles is flanked by not just mountains, but labyrinthine canyons too. And a visit to Griffith Park usually begins with a passage through these leafy yet dusty nooks, as you follow a pathway into the sun-splashed hills and eventually reach the p...
Griffith Park (Los Angeles)
Balboa Park is a testament to the power of visionary landscape architecture. What used to be a scrub-filled mesa was transformed into an ecological and cultural dreamland with hiking trails, seasonal gardens, gold and archery courses, and a whopping ...
Balboa Park (San Diego)
As beautiful and bounteous as Golden Gate Park is, the clifftop forests and trails over at nearby Lands End offer an even more powerful immersion in local scenery. Managed by the National Park Service, Lands End offers an unforgettable passage throug...
Lands End (San Francisco)
The immensity of the ferns and mosses in Forest Park is so great that at times, hiking through here can feel like time traveling to a primordial age. And then there's the scale of Forest Park itself. A 5,200 titan of a green space, located on the nor...
Forest Park (Portland)
Seattle is where the woods meet the waters, in epic fashion, and Discovery Park is an ideal venue for savoring this collision of environments. Located next door to Ballard, northwest of downtown Seattle, Discovery Park overlooks the Puget Sound from ...
Discovery Park (Seattle)