Parks and other green spaces. Click on entry for more information
Birmingham Botanical Gardens (Mountain Brook)
- The street address says Birmingham, but you’ll find the BBG in Mountain Brook, on the edge of English Village. BBG packs in quite a bit- with more than 20 distinct garden areas, including a Japanese garden, multiple rose gardens, and the Conservatory. That last space has a main room featuring tropical plants. Off to one side, you will find a desert garden. The other side features citrus plants. (Even though citrus in the wild tends to have a season from early winter to late Spring, the BBG citrus garden is at its height in the summer.) Admission is free. Open 7 days a week.
Birmingham Zoo (Birmingham, near Mountain Brook)
- Started in 1955 under the name Jimmy Morgan Zoo, this 122-acre attraction has become a favourite spot for locals, and visitors from around the region. The zoo features more than 500 animals from around the world, including some endangered species. Visitors can enjoy multiple specialized exhibits, from Trails of Africa to the children’s zoo. There are also numerous special events year-round. The Birmingham Zoo plays a strong role in the field of elephant conservation.
Kelly Ingram Park (Birmingham, downtown)
- This downtown park sits just across the street from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and diagonally across from the 16th Street Baptist Church. The block-sized park features a sculpture memorializing the four girls killed in the bombing of the church in 1963. It also has monuments invoking actions taken against people of color in Birmingham during the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.
Oak Mountain State Park (Pelham)
- Founded in 1927, Oak Mountain is Alabama’s oldest state park. At its start, it was just 940 acres. Now, Oak Mountain is nearly 12,000 acres, with more than 100 miles of trails – and features a huge variety of outdoor activities. They include hiking, camping, swimming, fishing, golf, archery, falconry, geocaching, and lots more. Oak Mountain is also a quite popular mountain biking destination. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what his park has to offer!