Its All about Parks

To get away from the madding crowd

December 20th, 2009 -- Posted in Top Parks | Comments

Are you someone who wants to do some thing off the beaten track and visit some of the little known places which are not teeming with noisy tourists? Then here are some of the world’s most beautiful parks that you can visit and not be beset by crowds of people.

Torres del Paine National Park, Chile - This park offers the best that nature has to offer. There are the mountains, glaciers and green lakes. The most popular draw are the natural rock formations called rge “Torres del Paine”. This also means the blue towers.

Jasper National Park, Canada - This park is teeming with wildlife. See the grizzly bears, coyotes and the wolves, surrounded by the mountains. There are the seas of the Athabasca Valley and the Columbia Ice-fields along with the eight glaciers.

Cinque Terre National Park, Italy – This is located in a place called Liguria in Italy. In this park, there are the mountains which surround the oceans. The park gets its name from the five beautiful villages that are found here.

Nairobi National Park, Kenya - This is a place to sample some of the bewildering variety of African wildlife. There are lions, zebras, cheetahs and black rhinos too. There are about 400 species of birds and probably more, in the savannah grasslands. In the west, there are highlands and dense forests as well.

Arches National Park, USA (Utah) - This place has some of the most beautiful and amazing rock formations that you can ever find. In the park, there are over 2000 stone arches to be found, thus giving the park its name. The tallest stone arch is 14 meters long. All these rock formations are completely the work of nature. Another thing to notice about these rock formations is the fact that due to the action of erosion, the forms, colours and shapes of these are constantly undergoing perceptible changes.

Connemara National Park, Ireland – This park can be found in the west of the Republic of Ireland. There are the famous Irish moors and mountains. There are megalithic chamber graves which are about 4,000 years old. See the wild Connemara ponies and the red deer along with the orchids and some carnivorous plants.

Archipelago Los Roques National Park, Venezuela (Vargas) – This national park comprises 42 islands,. There are sand banks along with some of the world’s most untouched coral reefs. The waters are of a beautiful colour, from dark blue to a turquoise green. The park is located at a distance of 105 miles from the coast of Venezuela. Here you can stay in posadas. These are small rural dwellings run by families.

Picos de Europa National Park, Spain (Asturias, Cantabria, Castle and Leon) – This park is the largest national park in Spain. Right next to the Atlantic Ocean, the park is at an elevation of 1,100 meters and has mountains. There are the beautiful Covadonga Caves.

Berchtesgaden National Park, Germany (Bavaria) -This is the only park with untouched alpine pastures and farms. There are mountains all around with a beautiful variety of flora and fauna.

Top Parks of America

April 18th, 2009 -- Posted in Top Parks | Comments

If a list were to be made of the top public parks in America, the criteria would perhaps have to be the ones with the maximum visitors and the facilities each provides. Here is a list of five of such parks that attract quite some attention.

Central Park, New York: Not only is this park one of the most visited parks in the country, it has also been proclaimed to be a National Historical landmark. The park is replete with every kind of scenic and sporting facility required in a park, even though it is situated in the center of a literal concrete jungle, surrounded by sky scrapers on all sides. The park has everything, from beautiful ponds to joggers and bikers paths and dog runs. It also provides for an outdoor open air theatre and other such cultural activities.

Lincoln Park, Chicago: This Park dates back to 1843 and has now been given the place of a National Historical place. It is Chicago’s largest park and has up to fifteen baseball courts and plenty of soccer fields and tennis courts to go along with it. There is also a very well maintained golf course to suit other tastes along with a fitness center. The park however is perhaps best known for its very own zoo. The zoo is interactive, where children are allowed to play with and feed pigs and horses etc.

South Mountain Park, Arizona: This Park is the largest city park in America. The park is best known for preserving a mountainous area in its natural state along with its original desert vegetation. It boasts of several trails for horse riding and also for hikers. There is also a landmark Mystery Castle located in the Park.

Griffith Park, Los Angeles: The Park is a municipal park and happens to be one of the largest in the whole North America. There are some very grand features that the park boasts of such as an eighteen hole golf course and a miniature railroad, along with vast baseball fields and hiking trails.

Balboa Park, San Diego: This is one of the oldest places in America that has been dedicated for the sole purpose of serving as a recreational place for citizens. The park is not only an ideal place to experience vast spaces of nature; it also offers other facilities like museums, theaters and well maintained gardens.