Purgatory Park is a great spot for some easy-access nature trails and dog-walking.

This park makes a great stop for families, especially those with a four-legged friend in tow. Most of the park doubles as a designated dog off-leash area, so we saw lots of 'woofers' there. I was told that if we didn't want to be in the dog off-leash area, we would have to stick to the outer trail, which was the only paved trail in the park. This was good information to know and is helpful especially for families with really young kids, and/or kiddos who are skittish around dogs. One of our daughters recently had a very serious dog bite, so I found this information particularly helpful in planning our walk.

The total acreage in the park is 155 acres, so it's a respectably-sized suburban park. There's a total of 2.2 miles of trails, with the main trail clocking in at 1.2 miles. These easy trails are great, even for those with littles in tow. There is a picnic shelter available, and picnic tables in the high season. Grills are also available if you're looking to cook burgers or s'mores.

Our most recent visit to this park was in winter, so we grabbed our little circle sleds as we headed out, and anytime we saw a little hill, the girls jumped on and caught a little ride! It was a fun bonus to a little snowy outdoor hiking. I imagine this park is beautiful in all seasons, depending on what you're looking for in an outdoor adventure.

This park offers a designated parking lot, though I will say even in the dead of winter when we left around 5 pm on a weekday, the lot was positively overflowing with cars...people were even parked haphazardly lining the drive into the parking lot. That said, we've also been here in the summer when the lot has been literally empty, so go figure. One big bonus to this park is well-maintained, flushing/indoor bathroom facilities (yes, even throughout winter) at the park entrance.

There is no fee to visit this park.