Waterfront Park is a Louisville staple now. It offers a great backdrop of the water, walking paths,…read morespace for events, bike rentals, and more. Waterfront Wednesday with its concerts and Thunder over Louisville are popular times for locals to visit. Near the park you'll find restaurants, hotels, and city sites, including the Big 4 Bridge, river boats, Slugger Field, and Actors Theatre. If you're looking for a new spot to walk, ride bikes, or hang with family, out Waterfront Park on your list. Have a picnic, relax and swing, or visit the playground/splash park. Street parking and/or meters available. Some parking lots and they can get full during events.

"Let's go to Waterfront Park" is one of my love languages. Having a quiet moment on the love chair…read moreswings, letting kids frolic on different playgrounds, enjoying the absolute cultural icon that is Waterfront Wednesdays, setting up a picnic to watch historic moments like an eclipse, BYO-Chair for movie nights at the amphitheater. Food truck festivals, and flea markets, and chalk art... I just cannot say enough about how amazing this park and all of its recreational activities are. Plus, don't forget to use Waterfront Park to access The Big Four Bridge which provides a beautiful view of Louisville and helps showcase how expansive the park is. With over 85 acres to explore, I highly suggest the riverside path for a bike or scooter ride. Huge shout-out to all the people maintaining the park and its programming for providing us with yet another reason to bask in Louisville pride.

This is our favorite park to go to as a family. The kids playground includes an area for little…read moreones and a couple different areas depending on the age of the child - all right next to each other. There are tables and plenty of seating to watch play (but play with them too!). There's a big open area for lawn games and also a splash pad with more seating and a pavilion you can rent for parties. All things enclosed and pets or bikes are not allowed. In addition to this there is a massive lawn to play things like soccer or other sports, great paved walking or biking paths and it even goes into the woods where you can play in the creek. There are plenty of great trails here, paved and dirt, and a hand-full of fun geocaches if you download the app. Very amazing park!

This is my favorite part due to safe cleanliness and safety. It is a very open space to exploit…read morepaved grounds or wooded groups. It is part of the big parks plan of Louisville which loops approximately 55 miles around. They also offer hiking for kids and a huge playground/spray ground.

Great place! Iconic, historic, and fun. Chances are that your parents, and maybe grandparents,…read morejumped off this rock into the cool water below. Be advised it is only maybe 3ft at deepest, rocks on bottom, and occasional waters naked. You know, nature stuff. Crawdads abound, and are fun to hunt. Only caveat is during dry spells the water can become less than savory. Toxic even. So be advised.​

Big Rico park is a very cool and beautiful park located in the Cherokee park system that's created…read moreby Olmsted the same person who made New York's Central Park. Located in the highlands/Cherokee portion of the city of Louisville. I stopped by this park the other day with my wife and 4th horn daughter who is 18 months old. We had planned to play on there small playground but she fell asleep so we Chelsea out the scenery instead. They have lots of water that's ankle high and lots of rock that allows you to walk out in and get in the water. It also a few small trails that surround the park that lets you see yeh park from several angles. The park includes seven benches on the banks of the water for viewing pleasure. They also have a giant pavilion that can be rented out. Which looks like at one point was very impressive. Now it's not upkept and filled with graffiti. It's honestly the only eye sore here. Hopefully they clean it up. Overall cool place that looks like it has 3 different parking lots for different entry points. Although the water is low enough and there is a bough rocks to easily walk this small park and get to any entrance. We had a nice visit here and I look for art to coming back with my other kids and enjoying the exploring and playground.

Excellent spot for birdwatching. Cormorants, great blues, gulls, and egrets guaranteed. Have also…read morespotted eagles, hawks, orioles, and ospreys.

Your first stop, when visiting the Falls of the Ohio State Park, should be the Interpretive Center,…read morewhich is basically like a mini museum full of exhibits and information about the area, past and present. The Interpretive Center is great for kids, because there are a lot of hands-on activities. Theres an admission fee to enter the Interpretive Center, but it doesn't cost anything to park and walk around the outdoor area of the Falls of the Ohio State Park. Walk on the fossilized rocks, peer out onto the Ohio River and over to Louisville, and enjoy being by the water. Just don't collect any rocks or fossils -- there are signs saying to leave everything where you found it. I do think it's worth it to go into the Interpretive Center, though. There's an interesting piece of artwork on one of the walls of some of the trash that was collected along the Ohio River. It's arranged nicely and looks beautiful, but it's a testament to all of the garbage that people mindlessly leave around that end up in our waterways. This was a quick stop on our visit to southern Indiana, but I definitely think it was well worth it. If you're in the area, this is definitely a place to visit.

What a pleasant surprise as many times as I have been to this area I never knew about this park…read more It's small but secluded and shaded for a nice walk in a wooded area with a a picturesque stream nearby. Great for those who want to walk their dogs or just to enjoy the serenity and peace and quiet.

Great park for walking trails and nature photography. Lots of birds and other animals in an urban…read moresetting.

Springs Park in La Grange is a real gem. It's always clean and well-maintained, from the walkways…read moreto the restrooms. The playgrounds are great quality and nicely divided so kids of different ages have plenty to enjoy. One of the best parts is how walkable it is to downtown. Sweet shops, cafés, antique stores -- everything's just a short stroll away. It makes for a perfect outing: play, grab a treat, maybe shop a bit. The pavilion is beautiful and gives the park a polished, welcoming feel. Plenty of shady spots and benches make it easy for parents (and grandparents!) to sit and relax while the kids burn off energy. All in all, if you're looking for a peaceful, charming park close to town with good amenities, Springs Park delivers. Highly recommend for families, casual visitors, or anyone wanting a breath of fresh air in a pretty setting.

What a treasure for the residents of La Grange! This beautiful park was opened in 2022 and has…read moresomething for everyone. The expansive brick-arched pavilion resembles a train station which is in keeping with the trains that travel down the town's Main Street daily. I was told that the pavillion is host to many musical events and the Saturday artisans/farmer's market. Also keeping with the town's love of trains, there is a piece of playground equipment fashioned after a locomotive. The playground has areas that are appropriate for younger and older children. Included in the areas are musical instruments, slides, rope bridge, climbing wall, merry-go-round and more. There is a building with very nice restrooms. There is an area of dedicated parking and there is also street parking available nearby. There is an abundance of nearby shops and eateries along Main Street.

Great, unique park with amazing scenery and wildlife habitat! It's a perfect mix of grasslands,…read morewoodlands, and wetlands! Chapel Lake is absolutely in my top 5 parks in the area, and I try to make a visit at least once a week. I hope the city of Jeffersonville will take some of the features of this park, and adds them to future parks too!

Located on New Chapel Road in Jeffersonville is a great new park in the east side of town. The…read morepark has one entrance so you can't miss it. There are hiking trails, walking trails, playground for the kids, restrooms are available as well as picnic tables located in a sheltered area. They have a very large pond if you want to kayak and the pond is stocked with fish. Fishing is catch and release and you do need a license to fish in the pond. A great family park and dog friendly! Please pick up after your pets. Leave the park clean and enjoy the day!

I haven't been to McNeely in a while, probably since I was a kid but we have recently started going…read moreagain and it's definitely been enhanced! There are plenty of spots for fishing but some of them you will need to take a short hike down a gravel road. If you bring a wagon make sure it has bigger wheels but probably best to carry everything to make it easier. There is a fishing dock as well that's pretty big and most definitely is shareable with a few groups. The hiking trail that extends around to the dam is a fun walk since it goes in and out of wooded covering. Makes it great for sunny days as well. The playground is nice and maybe small to moderate size. There are BBQ stands to use and picnic tables. There are bathrooms but not very quick to get to from most parts of the park so keep that in mind. Great place to kayak as well! Great views and since the lake is narrow it makes it feel more like a river to go through. Super fun place! Glad to see them doing more work on it Only criticism is that there is lots of trash and even though it's the patrons fault, the park could do a better job at cleaning it up. Watch your little ones so they don't pick up pokey fish hooks or broken bottles.

Tiny park located off cedar creek road. You pull into a the parking lot and the road way is gated…read moreoff. So you park to the immediate left. The park itself features a small playground, a full court basketball court and lots of soccer fields. If you follow the concrete path near the parking lot towards the patio area and soccer fields you can follow that path around a short trail that eventually takes you through a gravel paved wooded area that runs along side the soccer fields. It leads back out to the road where it circles back to the blocked off road at the entrance. It's a giant circle. But it's a peaceful and easy trail. Overall solid little park and it's pretty close to my home. So I'll come up here and let the girls play on the playground. It's very rarely crowded. Most of the crowd heads to the larger McNeely Lake Park about 3 miles down the road as it has several massive playgrounds. So a lot of time when we don't want to deal with bit crowds I'll make the short trip here and let the girls run wild and blow off energy.