Public Parks in Philadelphia & The Countryside 19
State parks and forests, national recreation areas, wildlife refuges and city parks.
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Nockamixon State Park
A long reservoir in the rolling hills, busy with sailboats and anglers, with a marina, a swimming pool, cabins, a paved bike path and bridle trails along the shore.
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Tyler State Park
The Schofield Ford Covered Bridge spans Neshaminy Creek in this park of old farm fields and woodland, laced with paved paths and bridle trails and home to a historic mill.
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Delaware Canal State Park
Nearly 60 miles of towpath along a 19th-century canal that still runs unbroken from Easton to Bristol, passing locks, river islands and old canal towns such as New Hope.
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Norristown Farm Park
Crops still grow on land farmed since the 1700s, and paved paths loop past fields, old stone farmhouses and barns, woodlots and a trout nursery along Stony Creek.
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Marsh Creek State Park
Sailboats and kayaks share a big reservoir that covers the old village of Milford Mills, while trails wind through the surrounding hills and a swimming pool cools summer crowds.
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Neshaminy State Park
Where Neshaminy Creek meets the tidal Delaware River, with a big swimming pool, a marina and a riverside walk looking out across the water.
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Fort Washington State Park
Hawk watchers crowd the observation deck each fall as raptors stream south over hills where Washington's army dug in during the autumn of 1777, weeks before Valley Forge.
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Ralph Stover State Park
Rock climbers scale the cliffs of High Rocks above a horseshoe bend of Tohickon Creek, whitewater paddlers run it on release weekends, and picnickers spread out along its banks below.
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Ridley Creek State Park
Wooded hills and meadows along a trout stream, with a paved multi-use loop, bridle paths and the old mill village of Sycamore Mills; the Tyler Arboretum is right next door.
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Washington Crossing Historic Park
The Pennsylvania shore where Washington's army set out across the icy Delaware on Christmas night 1776, with historic buildings and a yearly reenactment.
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Evansburg State Park
A meandering creek has carved wooded ridges and ravines into this green island in the suburbs, with a 1792 stone-arch bridge at its edge and trails for hikers, riders and mountain bikers.
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White Clay Creek Preserve
A quiet valley along a federally designated Wild and Scenic River, with trails that continue across the state line into Delaware and an 18th-century Baptist meetinghouse.
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Big Elk Creek State Park
Rolling old farm fields and woods along a clean, high-quality creek near the Maryland line, crossed by trails for hikers, cyclists and riders and alive with birds.
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Benjamin Rush State Park
A sprawling community garden, a radio-control flying field and trails through meadows and woods fill the only state park inside city limits.
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John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum
The largest freshwater tidal marsh left in Pennsylvania, just beyond the airport runways, with boardwalks, a visitor center and trails where herons, egrets and migrating songbirds are easy to spot.
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John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove
The first American home of John James Audubon, now a museum of his bird art set amid woods, meadows and trails along Perkiomen Creek that are rich in birdlife.
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Wissahickon Valley Park
A deep, wooded gorge cut by Wissahickon Creek, with car-free Forbidden Drive along the water, the 1850s Valley Green Inn, a covered bridge and rugged trails up schist cliffs.
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William Penn State Forest
Small, scattered tracts in the southeast corner of the state, the best known being Goat Hill, a rare serpentine barren of rocky grassland and plants found almost nowhere else in Pennsylvania.
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Valley Forge National Historical Park
Where Washington's Continental Army camped through the winter of 1777-78: rolling fields, rebuilt huts, his headquarters and miles of trails.
