The only water-based park administered by Maricopa County is also its most popular – at Lake Pleasant Regional Park northwest of Phoenix, you can fish, water ski, even scuba dive in addition to hiking, camping, and stargazing in the park’s almost 25,000 acres!

By far the largest park in the City of Murrieta, the rustic 165-acre Cole Canyon Natural Park offers wide open space, access to Murrieta Creek, and trails with fantastic views of the Temecula Valley.

Spur Cross Ranch is the newest and only designated conservation area in the Maricopa County Parks and Recreation system. Despite its small size, the variety of habitat is host to a myriad wildlife, with expansive recreation opportunities that will make you forget this unit is only 2,154 acres!

Comprising more than a third of a million acres, including some of the wildest and most remote areas of the state, the Conejos Peak District of the Rio Grande National Forest in south-central Colorado offers amazing recreation opportunities for everyone, no matter what time of year!

Arizona has wetlands? Yes! The almost 700 acre Tres Rios wetlands sits at the southwest edge of Phoenix, and offers the opportunity to observe hundreds of species of birds, year round!

Estrella Mountain Regional Park, in the southwest corner of the Phoenix metropolitan area, offers an amazing variety of activities. You can go on a guided horseback adventure, play a round of golf, fish the Gila River, escape into the backcountry, and more in the park’s almost 20,000 acres.

Michelle ‘SuperClassy’ Markel plans to walk 56+ miles in three days to benefit Redlands Conservancy and Support Public Lands.

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If you’re going to #OptOutside on Friday, why not go all in and commit to #BuyNothingDay