from rscottjones

Below is a list of the 15 largest city parks and preserves in the United States.

Four out of five

When most people think of Phoenix, they think of endless suburban sprawl. And, certainly, that's part of the story. But here's something that many are surprised to learn:

Four of the five largest city parks are located in metro Phoenix.

As in, municipal parks that are located entirely within city boundaries and are managed by city parks department staff¹.

But that's not all...

The Phoenix metro area is also encircled by the nation's largest county park system², which includes 12 regional county parks comprising about 120,000 acres. The 315-mile Maricopa Trail (and its sister 120-mile Sun Circle Trail) also encircles the metro area by connecting many of these county parks.

And of course, metro Phoenix also borders the famed Tonto National Forest (the ninth largest in the country at over 2.9 million acres), the nearly 500,000-acre Sonoran Desert National Monument, and several million acres of BLM public lands.

You may only think sprawl when you think of Phoenix, but you should probably also think parks, public lands, and preserves, too.

Sprawling cities = sprawling parks and preserves?

As you can see, the Phoenix and Houston areas absolutely dominate the listings.

That's interesting, as those two cities (along with Los Angeles) are probably the poster children for "urban sprawl" in the US. But the ability to expand outward also provides an interesting opportunity to protect undeveloped land in a way that more dense and established cities like New York, Boston, or even Chicago, would struggle to do.

At the same time, Phoenix was a bit of an outlier. It purchased South Mountain Park from the federal government way back in 1924, just a dozen years after statehood and while the city was still quite small—about 5.1 square miles with a population of 38,500, though growing as fast as ever. Even with the property still 7.5 miles away from city limits, city leaders feared that this was their only opportunity to preserve the best nearby recreational areas. They ended up purchasing an area about 5 times larger than the city itself.

Houston's largest parks, on the other hand, are derived from lands enclosed by federal reservoirs, presumably for flood control and drainage, as the city is located in bayou country. I don't know the specific history at play, but surmise that its large parks were created because the reservoir land would otherwise be "unused" for commercial purposes; whereas in Phoenix's case, it was a very concerted effort to proactively protect prime locations from development.

Note: while I've done my best to be accurate in this post (I've even contacted several cities above for accurate numbers, though I never seem to get a reply), it's surprisingly difficult to find simple, accurate answers. Part of that is because land acquisitions continue (yay!), and older information isn't always updated. But my main purpose in this post is pointing out how many large parks and preserves metro Phoenix has, so even if a few numbers have changed, you still get the picture. If you find an error, please send it to me so I can update this!

Last updated: May 23, 2024