Sitting in the center of South Carolina, Columbia has no shortage of excellent parks, gardens, and other green spaces where adults, kids, and whole families can go to relax, work out, play sports, or do all the things you have to go outside to enjoy. From one end of the city to the other, you’ll find parks and botanical gardens that reveal the real beauty of the American South.
Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden
Just west of where the Saluda and Congaree Rivers meet is the Riverbanks Zoo, and just across the river is the city’s Botanical Garden. While the Riverbanks Zoo isn’t one of the biggest in the nation, it has an animal collection it can be proud of that includes over 2,000 animals representing 350 species from just about every continent in the world. Herbivores like giraffes and zebras roam together in the same enclosure, and the Riverbanks Farm area lets kids get up close and personal with domesticated alpacas and goats.
Then you can cross the river and see another impressive collection. The Riverbanks Botanical Garden covers 70 acres and showcases 7,200 species of flowers, bushes, shrubs, trees, and more. Themed gardens bring together plants from East Asia, wetland-loving grasses and flowers, and drought-tolerant cacti and other succulents. The new Waterfall Junction is a garden just for kids, and the premier Wall Garden demonstrates everything you can grow in South Carolina’s humid, subtropical climate.
Saluda Shoals Park
The Saluda Shoals Park is towards the west end of town near Lake Murray. The park fills up 400 acres of hiking trails, fishing spots, and river access points where you can jump in a canoe or a kayak and explore the water. The park also has plenty of kid-friendly facilities, including an environmental center you can rent out for parties or visit for classroom activities. Then there’s Saluda Splash, a zero-depth water park where kids can splash around in waterfalls and fountains – just the thing for a hot Southern summer day.
Sesquicentennial State Park
The Sesquicentennial State Park, Sesqui for short, is a 1,400-acre park that sits northeast of central Columbia. The park is big enough to have campgrounds both with and without water and electricity hookups, but it’s also close enough to Columbia to provide facilities like a dog park, a splash pad, and a picnic area. You can bring a big group up to the park and rent out some dorm-style buildings if you want to go on a retreat during a big family reunion or a company team-building exercise. You can also go hiking, fishing, boating, biking, birdwatching and more.
There are plenty more parks where these three came from, and you can find them along the river, over by Lake Murray, and throughout the rest of the city and its suburbs. No matter where you go to Columbia, you won’t have any trouble finding a place where you can admire the natural beauty that the state of South Carolina has to offer.
Image by mogollon_1 via CC BY 2.0
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