Eagle Creek Park

When Indianapolis residents feel like stretching their legs and filling their lungs with fresh air, they make for Eagle Creek Park, one of the largest urban parks in the USA. Just a stone’s throw from the city centre, the park offers 16 kilometres of well-organised hiking trails, as well as a swimming and boating lake.

If you want to let off some steam, boats, kayaks and bikes can be rented at the marina. Alternatively, take it easy on the man-made beach or wait patiently for a largemouth bass or catfish to tweak the end of your line. Lively youngsters can burn off surplus energy on the zip lines of the Go Ape Treetop Adventure course, while their parents wander around the natural history exhibits and make friends with the reptiles and amphibians in the Earth Discovery Centre.

The park is home to a wide variety of native wildlife, including deer, beavers and mink. At the specialist ornithology centre, visitors can learn all about the indigenous birdlife, with exhibits on over 260 species and their habits, as well as birds of prey shows featuring the eagles that lend their name to the park. The centre also has one of the best views across the park to Eagle Creek, so be sure to bring your binoculars and a camera.

If all that exercise and fresh air has given you an appetite, head for Rick’s Boatyard Café, which always has a wide variety of tasty local dishes, often including fresh seafood, on the menu. There are also plenty of picnic sites dotted around the park for a do-it-yourself al fresco feast.

During the summer, this popular park gets very busy, so if you want to dodge the crowds it’s best to avoid the weekends. Alternatively, come in autumn when the leaves turn to gold and russet and the morning sky is streaked with shades of indigo and vermilion.

Eagle Creek Park is open every day, and a small admission charge applies.