10 Reasons Why Parks Will Make You a Better Person
Recent studies have proven what we at Outside have always known: Being outdoors makes you healthier and happier. In our increasingly digital world, unplugging is more important than ever. Fortunately, you don’t need to drive for days to a remote national park or drop a grand on fancy gear to enjoy the life-improving power of the outdoors. The nature fix you crave is likely closer than you think, be it the nearby state-park beach, revitalized urban river greenway, or one of the country’s newest national monuments. Still need convincing? Here are ten more reasons to head to your closest or favorite park.
5. State Parks Are Often Hidden Gems
Our national parks are undeniably awesome (see #9), but they often overshadow the equally great and way more accessible and numerous state parks. “I feel authentically me in parks—whether around the corner or thousands of miles from home, national, state and local parks inspire me. They’re my creative canvas and a rejuvenating force that I cannot live without,” says Silas Fallstich, adventure photographer. “All in all, parks are my happy place.” There are more than 10,000 of them across the country, and odds are good that there’s a pretty great one within a short drive from your house. “If the national parks are the polished crown jewels of the U.S. public land system, our state parks are the geodes,” says writer Aaron Gulley, who’s been living out of an Airstream, pinballing around the West, for the past six months. In Texas’ Palo Duro State Park—home to the country’s second-largest canyon—you can book one of three stone cabins built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which sit atop the canyon rim and offer fantastic views. Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee boasts six waterfalls within a 26,000-acre preserve. John D. MacArthur Beach State Park in Florida offers almost two miles of pristine Atlantic beach, mangrove swamps, trails that meander through canopies of trees, and incredible snorkeling. And at Minnesota’s heavily forested Itasca Lake State Park, you can wade across the shallow, cold Mississippi River as it leaves its headwaters. The list goes on and on and on…