Staying local

Don’t forget to visit State Parks

State parks are often overlooked compared to their national counterparts, but they offer a wealth of outdoor adventures closer to home. While the US has sixty-two national parks, there are over 10,000 state parks covering over 18 million acres. Here are a few from around the country:

Just outside Boulder, Colorado, Eldorado Canyon State Park is a mecca for rockclimbers with over 1,000 technical climbing routes. There are also eleven miles of hiking and mountain-biking trails and great fishing in the South Boulder Creek.

Most people who visit America’s oldest state park, Niagara Falls State Park in New York, come to watch over 750,000 gallons of water rush over the falls every second but there are also gardens and hiking trails created by Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed New York City’s Central Park.

In California’s Emerald Bay State Park, located on the west shore of Lake Tahoe, one can tour Vikingsholme, a stone castle that’s considered the best example of Scandinavian architecture in the US. The park also has protected underwater shipwrecks that guests can visit by strapping on diving gear and following the underwater “Maritime Heritage Trail

Hunting Island State Park, a stunning barrier island 15 miles from Beaufort is South Carolina’s most visited state park thanks to its famous lighthouse, pristine beaches, and a popular fishing lagoon. It may look familiar as many of the Vietnam scenes from Forrest Gump were filmed here.

Get Out(side)!

Outdoor sculpture gardens are wonderful places to catch up with friends at a safe distance while taking in beautiful works of art.

Glenstone, a museum and sculpture garden spread over 230 bucolic acres in Potomac, Maryland, includes works by Richard Serra and Andy Goldsworthy but the showstopper is Jeff Koons’ 37-foot Split Rocker: the toy heads of a rocking horse and a dinosaur spliced together and covered with 50,000 flowers.

Glenstone

In New York’s Hudson Valley, Storm King Mountain Center lays claim to the largest outdoor sculpture collection in the US. Here, visitors can enjoy works by 20th-century masters like Louise Nevelson, David Smith, and Mark di Suvero, as well as featuring contemporary sculptors Kiki Smith and Martha Tuttle.

Storm King

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center has more than 40 sculptures displayed across 11 acres. There are works by esteemed artists like Alexander Calder and Roy Liechtenstein, but the garden is best-known for the Spoonbridge and Cherry fountain sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.

In addition to iconic works like Renoir’s The Judgement of Paris and Louise Bourgeois’s Spider, the Bestoff Sculpture Gallery at the New Orleans Museum of Art has three site-specific works by contemporary female artists