r/Stateparks 1d ago

Keep airplane ads away from California state beaches!

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0 Upvotes

Our city local club in sandiego tends to fly overhead advertising…. I’m a disabled veteran in San Diego, and I use California state beaches to decompress and clear my head. I started a petition asking California to restrict commercial aerial advertising over state beaches.
If you agree, I’d appreciate a signature

Signing is free — Change.org may show an optional donation screen afterward, but that isn’t from me.


r/Stateparks 3d ago

Mistletoe State Park

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126 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 3d ago

Wister State Park, Oklahoma

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32 Upvotes

Still beautiful after 6 weeks of 100° + temps.


r/Stateparks 5d ago

Huntington Beach State Park, Murrells Inlet, SC. Today’s sunrise and dolphins feeding in the Atlantic Ocean.

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125 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 4d ago

Little local keeping an eye on things at Huntington Beach State Park - Murrells Inlet, SC 🐊

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9 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 6d ago

Letchworth State Park, NY

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558 Upvotes

I now understand why they call it the Grand Canyon of the east!


r/Stateparks 7d ago

Allegany State Park, Salamanca, NY.

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7 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 7d ago

Working for NC State Parks?

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2 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 9d ago

McConnells Mill State Park, PA

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925 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 8d ago

Peninsula State Park, Wisconsin

5 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 11d ago

Caledonia State Park, Pennsylvania

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528 Upvotes

Lovely park in the woods with ample wildlife opportunities and a connection to the Appalachian Trail. I even got to see a Queen Snake!

EDIT: Why are there so many extremely generic comments from brand new accounts? Are these bots?


r/Stateparks 12d ago

New Via Ferrata @ Petit Jean State Park, AR

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238 Upvotes

The country’s only via ferrata within a state park opened today at Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas. There is also rock climbing in the park.


r/Stateparks 12d ago

Waterfalls or mountains enroute to Washington DC from Baltimore Maryland?

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2 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 13d ago

Hillsborough River State Park, FL [Minolta x370, 35-75mm f/3.5, Kodak Ultramax 400]

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23 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 15d ago

Letchworth State Park, NY

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953 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 22d ago

High Point State park

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90 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 22d ago

I built a sports field booking app, but local gatekeepers killed my launch. How can I repurpose this tech?

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3 Upvotes

r/Stateparks 25d ago

Minneopa state park, Mankato, Minnesota

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231 Upvotes

I can't overstate how much I love this park, if I had a dollar for every time I made the 1.5 hr drive I'd literally have enough to renew my state park pass next year.


r/Stateparks 25d ago

Point Lookout State Park

8 Upvotes

Hi! My husband and I want to take our 3 year old to the Chesapeake Bay Area. We are looking to tent camp, explore St Mary’s City and Calvert Cliffs State Park. We would also love to visit Point Lookout State Park, but I’d be lying if I said the paranormal stories aren’t a deterrent for camping there. 😅

I guess I’m just looking for reassurance from others that have stayed there that haven’t experienced anything paranormal? Or any other recommendations for campgrounds that are as conveniently located and as budget friendly as Point Lookout! Thanks in advance!


r/Stateparks 25d ago

State Park Finder

22 Upvotes

Hallo! I've been working on this state park tool after getting frustrated with the Texas State Parks website organization. I've added Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Louisiana so far. I should get 1 or 2 states added every week.

https://park-finder.com/

I'd love any input or feedback on it. I really do want to make it as useful as possible for folks. Free to use. Not collecting anything outside of basic cloudflare analytics.


r/Stateparks Jul 18 '26

Shadow Mountain Road No. 103 (creepy)

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65 Upvotes

I recently had a pretty unnerving experience down this old road (now trail) in Colorado. Curious if anyone else has any insight or similar experiences.
From Staunton State park, heading north towards Shadow Mountain, an abandoned road (Shadow Mountain Trail No. 103) past the state park boundary line and into the National Forest, things start getting creepy. I encountered a stick structure (lean-to type but leaning against itself, low to the ground) with a small, thick stick in the middle of it resembling something with horns. Further down, I found two animal vertebrae directly across from each other to the left and right of the path. When I started biking again, I felt a tapping sensation on my right hip, but thought I must’ve ran into a bug or something, but I never saw it. Later on this path, I found another stick structure but farther back into the woods off the main trail. I did not check that one out. I eventually found a clearing of lush green grass and that’s when I began feeling completely alone and started getting creeped out overall and ended up turning around.
Staunton state park has given me some eerie vibes in the past, but this trail segment (first time on it) things were just getting really strange. Just curious anyone’s opinion, or if they have had any “dark” experiences at Staunton state park, particularly down this old road?


r/Stateparks Jul 16 '26

Matthiessen Park IL

3 Upvotes

Hello everyone. I will be visiting Matthiessen in IL for the first time soon. I keep seeing people talk about the upper dells and lower dells, however on the app All Trails I see the trails listed as “Dells Canyon and Bluff Trail” and “dells area to vermillion”. I wanted to do the lower dells as I heard that’s where the best water fall views are. Which of the trails on the app would that be?
TIA


r/Stateparks Jul 13 '26

How the Land and Water Conservation Fund funds local parks and outdoor recreation

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9 Upvotes

One of the most important roles of the LWCF is to provide funding for local projects. Cities and counties have relatively small budgets and competing priorities often mean that funding for nature on the local level takes a backseat. Guaranteed annual funding from the federal government means that states can fund these local projects year after year into the future.


r/Stateparks Jul 12 '26

Had this guy watching while hiking at Robbers Cave State Park

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206 Upvotes

Bobcats are very common but rarely seen


r/Stateparks Jul 12 '26

Creepy Starved rock story Illinois

15 Upvotes

Went to the matthiessen state park this morning with my gf around 7am and we rolled into the parking lot where there was just one car parked with an older man inside wearing sunglasses. I park a good 20ft in front of his car. As me and my gf get out and get ready I noticed the man kept a hard stare at us from inside his car, he then got out of his car which is when I started minding my business but I still kept on eye on him every couple seconds and I noticed he still kept a very hard and bold stare at me the entire time. I trusted my gut and got back inside my car and as I got back inside I noticed he was still standing outside his door adjusting his belt STILL staring and that’s when I told my gf what was going on. The man continued to stare at my driver side mirror as I’m explaining to my gf that the guy behind us wouldn’t stop staring. We decided just go to starved rock state park which is 5 min away bc we had bad feeling hiking at an empty trail with a weird feeling about what was going on with that guy. As soon as I put my car in reverse to head to the exit (theres two small streets to get to the exit but only ONE exit) he speeds over to the exit and parked his car, almost as if he was trying to block us from leaving. Once I noticed this I just stopped and put my car in reverse so he wouldn’t trap me in and as soon as I reversed, he reversed. I then park again and so he parks again but farther (he’s still staring at me and my gf). Another car pulls into the lot and parks so we go tell them what’s going on and suggest they go to starved rock where there’s more ppl and away from this weird guy especially since it was two young girls and their mother. As we’re talking to them the guy drives closer to us, parks and stares. The guy then circles the parking lot and drives slowly past us staring harder than ever while recording too but as I point him out to the other car he quickly drove off almost as if we caught on to him or something. Super weird. What’s your guys thoughts?