Park it!

Whether you want an escape from the daily grind, find a place to get some exercise or just somewhere to hang out with your friends the Buffalo area has an extensive variety of parks to enjoy during the summer months.

For those that prefer to stay within the confines of Buffalo's city limits, the best option for you maybe to visit one of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks. This park system consists of six main parks and a number of parkways and circles that are located throughout the city.

There are also seven Erie County Parks, 17 different state parks within the Niagara Region and nearly countless amounts of neighborhood parks. Here is just a snippet of different parks you can enjoy in the Western New York area.

Delaware Park

The centerpiece of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks is the 350-acre Delaware Park, located in North Buffalo. Delaware Park offers a unique amount of activities unlike any other park in its system. Visitors can spend time boating on Hoyt Lake, hit the links at its golf course or attend Shakespeare in Delaware Park, an ongoing summer festival of reenactments of Shakespeare's works in an outdoor setting.

Delaware Park also encompasses the Buffalo Zoological Gardens in its borders. The Buffalo Zoo is the third oldest zoo in the country and holds over 320 different species of animals on 23.5 acres of land.

In the depths of South Buffalo lies this 155-acre plot which is another part of the Buffalo Olmsted Park system. It was designed to serve as an arboretum and currently holds more than 200 types of trees.

The Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens lie within South Park. Along with its styling of plants in a classic Victorian style, the Buffalo Gardens also have a tri-dome glass conservatory building that holds plants found from all around the globe.

A department of the Buffalo Museum of Science, the Tifft Nature Preserve is a 264-acre urban nature sanctuary on Fuhrmann Boulevard in South Buffalo. The purpose of the Tifft Preserve is to leave the animal and plant life as undisturbed as possible for the general public's enjoyment.

Tifft is truly for the naturalists and Sierra Club members out there. Hiking, bird watching, snow shoeing, limited fishing and photography are very much encouraged here. However, in an effort to preserve its natural setting, activities like hunting, trapping, swimming, boating, and cycling are prohibited as well as pets, fires, cooking, camping and alcoholic beverages. So if you are the John Muir type, Tifft is the place for you.

Chestnut Ridge Park

This 1,213-acre county park is well worth the trip to the Southtowns, not just for vast amount of hiking trails but also for its breath-taking view of Buffalo and Canada from the observation platform in the Casino.

Chestnut Ridge Park also has an abundance of picnicking areas for families. And for the tennis enthusiast, this park has 12 tennis courts to play on amongst its other athletic playing fields.

Beaver Island State Park

Found on the southern end of Grand Island, this 950-acre Beaver Island State Park offers arguably the best beach that Western New York has to offer. Along with a half-mile sandy beach, Beaver Island also offers access to boating and fishing.

Away from the shore, there are a number of bike and nature trails, athletic fields, horseshoe pits, plus an 18-hole golf course and an 18-hole disc gold course. For the history buffs, President Grover Cleveland's summer home also resides in the park.

Dr. Victor Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve

Situated in between the suburban development of the village of Depew is the 292-acre Dr. Victor Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve, which is run by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Reinstein Woods includes forests, ponds and wetlands and an extensive fauna of deer, beavers and many types of birds.

Much like Tifft, the Reinstein Woods were created in an effort to maintain the native wildlife of Western New York and also have several rules in place in order to keep the natural environment of the area in tact. Visitors may take self-guided interpretive trails or can take guided nature walks.