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Shelby Farms Park

Trees on a lawn by a pond
The walking trail around Hyde Lake is popular with visitors to Shelby Farms Park.

A beloved destination for hiking, kayaking, horseback riding, family-focused activities and more.

Shelby Farms Park features natural habitats as well as formal recreation spaces. Locals and tourists favor the green space for its plentiful multi-use trails, while the unspoiled forests and wetlands offer plenty of spots for birding and wildlife watching. A 100-acre dog park provides off-leash fun for pups and their owners. 

Shelby Farms Park is one of the largest urban parks in America, stretching across 4,500 acres in Shelby County and located just east of Downtown Memphis. The massive multi-use green space is five times the size of New York City’s Central Park and features more than 40 miles of paved and unpaved trails for hiking, cycling and horseback riding, as well as a 10-mile Greenline that connects the city to Cordova in Shelby County.

Trees on a lawn by a pond
The walking trail around Hyde Lake is popular with visitors to Shelby Farms Park.

The park is home to unspoiled hardwood forests, ecologically rich wetlands and more than 20 bodies of water, including Hyde Lake, Beaver Lake and Brood Pond, which allow fishing for catfish, largemouth bass, trout and other species. Non-motorized boats are allowed on all lakes, though some are more accessible than others.

And at the Hyde Lake Boat House, canoes, kayaks and standup paddle boards are available for rent in the spring and summer. For those who’d like to stay on land, adult and children’s bikes are rentable at the Hyde Lake Wheel House, located at the First Horizon Visitor Center. 

Wildlife is plentiful in the park; deer, turtles, beavers and hundreds of bird species including hummingbirds, songbirds and raptors are commonly observed in the area. The park is also home to a herd of buffalo, which were introduced in the late ‘80s as part of a nationwide effort to help support conservation of the animals that once roamed America’s grasslands in large numbers. 

At the Shelby Farms Stables, horse lovers and amateur equestrians can book daytime and sunset trail rides or sign up for private lessons; beginner to advanced riding camps for kids are also available.

Dedicated spaces for disc golf and BMX biking are located on site, and family-focused areas include the Woodland Discovery Playground and the Water Play Sprayground. Shelby Farms Park is also home to a Go Ape Zipline & Adventure Park.