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Portland's Forest Park is the largest urban park in any major US city. It also has the fairly unique feature of a few large buttes within the city limits for great views (Powell, Rocky, Kelly) as well as Mt. Tabor. The Columbia River along Marine Dr is also great, with fairly close views of the Cascades and Mt. St. Helens.
Forest Park is not even close to the largest park in any city in the US.
1. Chugach State Park (Anchorage Metro)
2. Franklin Mountains State Park (El Paso Metro)
3. Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Reserve (New Orleans Metro)
4. South Mountain Preserve (Phoenix Metro)
5. McDowell Sonoran Preserve (Phoenix Metro)
6. Cullen Park (Houston Metro)
7. Topanga State Park (Los Angeles Metro)
8. Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve (Jacksonville Metro)
9. George Bush Park (Houston Metro)
10. North Mountain Preserve (Phoenix Metro)
These are the largest parks within city limits. Forest Park is #19
Forest Park is not even close to the largest park in any city in the US.
1. Chugach State Park (Anchorage Metro)
2. Franklin Mountains State Park (El Paso Metro)
3. Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Reserve (New Orleans Metro)
4. South Mountain Preserve (Phoenix Metro)
5. McDowell Sonoran Preserve (Phoenix Metro)
6. Cullen Park (Houston Metro)
7. Topanga State Park (Los Angeles Metro)
8. Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve (Jacksonville Metro)
9. George Bush Park (Houston Metro)
10. North Mountain Preserve (Phoenix Metro)
These are the largest parks within city limits. Forest Park is #19
When it comes to variety, Los Angeles. When it comes to quality over quantity… I think it boils down to preferences. Many here are saying Portland or Seattle but it’s a bias towards cold rainforests. If you want something other than cold rainforest you’re gonna have a hard time there and rather be in another city. When it comes to pure untouched nature, and a mix of large urban amenities, the answer to this is Las Vegas. Las Vegas is not only near two national parks like Death Valley and the Grand Canyon, it’s also close to other amazing parks like anything in Southern Utah such as Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Lake Mead and plenty of other areas in the raw and untouched landscape of Nevada.
In addition to the raw landscape of the inland West, Vegas has an incredibly famous nightlife scene, a large variety of culinary options, known for hosting tons of events and concerts/festivals as well as having many major sports teams. It is also has a busy airport that can take you almost anywhere, including many international flights.
When it comes to the best mix of quantity and quality, I’d have to say Salt Lake City, which has a large body of water that can be used for any aquatic recreation, some of the best mountains for recreation in the US, and a large climatic variety for desert, green grasslands (lake effect from Great Salt Lake). Utah alone is probably the best state in the US for nature in the L48 and it shows in SLC. As far as urbanity goes, SLC has multiple train lines, and a developing skyline impressive amongst the mountains around it. Is it the best urban city? Absolutely not. But the best mix between urbanity and nature, no doubt. SLC isn’t a slouching city and again, best nature recreation immediately in the city in the US if I must say.
Outside the west, the best combination is Miami as a metropolitan area.
When it comes to variety, Los Angeles. When it comes to quality over quantity… I think it boils down to preferences. Many here are saying Portland or Seattle but it’s a bias towards cold rainforests. If you want something other than cold rainforest you’re gonna have a hard time there and rather be in another city.
This is nowhere close to being true. The PNW has more variety than probably anywhere in the country besides California.
You can get from downtown Portland to the desert in under 90 minutes. You can also get to rocky coastline in the same amount of time. Portland itself is located in the Willamette Valley which has lots of rolling farmland and idyllic countryside.
Forest Park is not even close to the largest park in any city in the US.
1. Chugach State Park (Anchorage Metro)
2. Franklin Mountains State Park (El Paso Metro)
3. Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Reserve (New Orleans Metro)
4. South Mountain Preserve (Phoenix Metro)
5. McDowell Sonoran Preserve (Phoenix Metro)
6. Cullen Park (Houston Metro)
7. Topanga State Park (Los Angeles Metro)
8. Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve (Jacksonville Metro)
9. George Bush Park (Houston Metro)
10. North Mountain Preserve (Phoenix Metro)
These are the largest parks within city limits. Forest Park is #19
Unless of course suddenly Phoenix, Houston, LA are not major US cities, I’d like to hear your attempt at an argument for that one.
Okay, yeah, I thought I remembered reading that somewhere but maybe it was just the largest at the time it was dedicated. It is the second largest urban forest, and not far behind Dallas' Great Trinity Forest (5000 acres vs. 6000).
Surprisingly (to me), the Great Trinity Forest apparently also reaches pretty close to downtown Dallas. I'm not sure how accessible it is from street level, though, it looks like the city around it is mostly industrial. Forest Park abuts some pretty urban parts of Portland, so it's easy to access on foot or bike.
I am surprised no one has mentioned Pittsburgh with its unique city topography. Seattle is my top pick. Minneapolis is an honorable mention with its outstanding bike trails and urban greenways.
It might be because the nature areas in Pittsburgh tend to be kind of hard to get to, or out of the way (cliffs or hilltops). but they did include NYC in this somehow, lol. maybe that's just a standard option for whatever. Central Park, ha ha
It might be because the nature areas in Pittsburgh tend to be kind of hard to get to, or out of the way (cliffs or hilltops). but they did include NYC in this somehow, lol. maybe that's just a standard option for whatever. Central Park, ha ha
Central Park is decent sized and a nice contrast to how urban things are around it so that it is a pretty good blend. However, that's far from it for NYC as the city has among the highest percentages of land reserved for greenspace among US cities and there's a wide variety of flatlands, islands, hilly terrains, swamps, forests, beaches, riverfronts, and oceanfronts within city boundaries. It's a peninsula and multiple islands of various sizes, so you run into quite a lot of variety.
West coast cities. Nature is a broad statement. If we're talking greatest contrast then I'd say San Francisco area because it's extremely urban but then have large areas where development is prohibited
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