Jared Brey

Let’s be honest. When you think of Philadelphia, hiking probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. And if it does, then you likely don’t need this list. But that’s not to say there aren’t many amazing opportunities to experience nature in and around the city. Philly is filled with unexpected urban oases, from the lush Wissahickon Valley Park and Schuylkill Center in the northwest to the teeming wetlands of the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge at the city’s extreme southern tip. Even more tantalizing, Philly sits just a short drive away from Pennsylvania’s many mountains and its vast state forest system. (Those are places where hiking is definitely one of the first things to come to mind.) There’s even a 229-mile swath of the Appalachian trail that cuts across the eastern part of the state. Here are 12 easy-to-reach spots to go hiking near Philadelphia. RECOMMENDED: The best things to do in Philadelphia

Philly in the summertime means drinks on stoops and on rooftop bars, fireworks on the parkway, block parties, festivals in Philadelphia, midnight pretzels, baseball games in the open air, and bricks and concrete baking away in the sun. Also, everywhere, a vapor cloud of hot garbage. Sometimes you can lean in and embrace it all. Other times, you’ve got to hang it up and escape to where the air is fresh. That could mean going hiking near Philadelphia or taking one of a slew of fun day trips from the city—but why not up the adventure factor and get yourself on a boat? But how? Glad you asked—we’ve got some fun ideas for tubing, kayaking, canoeing and more below. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best things to do in Philadelphia

This 7,730-acre park in the Schuylkill Highlands is a great option for camping near Philadelphia. It’s just an hour to an hour-and-a-half west of the city, and has plenty of opportunities for hiking, fishing and birdwatching. Basic tent sites cost $15 a night, or more if you want amenities like running water or electric ($2 extra per night for pets). The fact that it’s a highly regulated state park, though, means you’ll have to follow certain rules—namely a strict no-drinking policy. So leave the booze at home! RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best places to go camping near Philadelphia

For tubing, camping and hiking near Philadelphia, you can’t do much better than the Pine Barrens. Wharton State Forest, encompassing more than 300 square miles of pine forest, is the “largest single tract of land within the New Jersey State Park System,” according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Try Atsion Family Campground for drive-in camping ($20 a night for New Jersey residents, $25 if you’re out of state), or Mullica River Campground for overnight hikes ($3–$5 a night). Or check out the page for pet-friendly campsites. Remember, there’s no drinking in the state park system, so leave the beer at home. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best spots for camping near Philadelphia

Philadelphia is a great walking city. Dozens of historic neighborhoods can be explored on foot in an afternoon. The waterfronts are increasingly friendly to pedestrians. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can easily trek from Old City through Center City and up the Parkway to the scenic view atop the Art Museum stairs in the course of a few hours. And if you want to stretch your legs a little more, outside the urban environment, the region has plenty of options for that, too. Take Belmont Plateau in West Fairmount Park, for example. It offers one of the best views of the Philadelphia skyline and, in the woods nearby, a series of easily traversable trails that are typically used for mountain bike and cross country races. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best hiking near Philadelphia

For relatively easy hiking near Philadelphia, try Forbidden Drive, which follows the course of the Wissahickon Creek. It’s a gravel path, so it’s not too hard on the feet. If you’re looking for something a bit more challenging, try the Orange, White or Yellow Trail. And keep an eye on the calendar for guided hikes. Forbidden Drive connects to the Schuylkill River Trail via the Lincoln Drive Trail, so it’s possible to walk or bike the whole way there. Or you can access the park from Valley Green Inn, or a handful of other trailheads.

Philadelphia’s long-simmering dream of a linear park to rival New York’s High Line comes to life on June 14, when Phase 1 of the Rail Park opens to the public. Here are five reasons to look forward to it: You can get your first peek very soon. Photograph: Mike Smith When it’s finished, the Rail Park will comprise a three-mile stretch of unused railway line in the northern part of Center City. It’ll be completed in phases, and Michael Garden, vice chair of Friends of the Rail Park, says the first of those—a sliver of space between Broad and 11th Streets—will be ready for visitors starting June 14. This will add greenery to a section of the city that’s covered mostly in hardscape and serve as a “proof of concept” for the rest of the vision, says Garden. The landscape design is in good hands. Photograph: Mike Smith For Phase One, Studio Bryan Hanes—the landscape architecture firm behind such popular urban oases as Sister Cities Park and the Porch at 30th—plans to incorporate hearty trees and shrubs, in keeping with the tough industrial character of the neighborhood. “It’s going to have a real organic and self-sustaining feel, and I think people will respond well to that,” says Garden. “We’re excited to be opening in the spring when it will be blooming.” Artists will create a new public sculpture. The Philadelphia Art Commission approved public art for the Rail Park, which will involve telephone poles and engraved poetry. Artist Brent Wahl and poet Laynie Browne are currently

If you think birds are boring, imagine how boring they find you. Every spring, more than 30 species of warblers pass through Pennsylvania on their migratory route from Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean—not to mention the various species of woodpeckers, finches, flycatchers and shorebirds that visit the region this time of year. They stay to breed or they move on to points north. They carry different patterns of finery and have names like American redstart, Louisiana waterthrush and ovenbird. Your name is just Jared, or whatever, and you’ve spent the past 12 months reading about stuff you hate on Facebook. If you’re looking for a change of pace, here are a few leads to get started. Free tours at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge Photograph: Bill Buchanan/USFWS You don’t have to wait till it’s warm outside to see some remarkable birds. Throughout the year, volunteers lead bird-watching walks at this wildlife refuge in the southernmost tip of Philadelphia; in February, check out the Winter Waterfowl edition. Regular sightings include ring-necked ducks, ruddy ducks, northern shovelers, gadwalls and northern pintails, according to Wingyi Kung, a visitor service specialist at John Heinz, and the bald eagles that nest in the refuge should be incubating their eggs by then, says Kung. If you don’t have binoculars, borrow a pair at the front desk—and check out the calendar for more spring tours. Woodcock Dance at Cape May Bird Observatory Claudine Lamothe" da

Philadelphians have been waiting patiently for a peek behind the construction curtain surrounding LOVE Park since it was closed for renovation last February. And starting in November, they’ll get a sneak preview. The park reopens for one month starting on Thanksgiving. But it’ll be all dressed up for the holidays, playing host to Christmas Village, the annual Center City setup modeled after a German Christmas market. The renovation won’t be officially finished until spring, but even the holiday preview will go a long way toward filling the renovated park’s purpose: breaking down the edges that made the old LOVE Park—or JFK Plaza, as it’s officially known—feel so separated from the city. “The idea was to make it more permeable, which is different from the era in which it was designed,” says Mary Margaret Jones, a senior principal at Hargreaves Associates, which led the redesign of LOVE Park. Jones says that one of the key principles for the redesign was to allow “flexibility of use,” so that the park will be welcoming for daily visitors and tourists as well as appropriate for an occasional seasonal festival. Rather than a sunken plaza, like the old, concrete park, Hargreaves opted for a “simple, tipped plane” that will maintain the view from the LOVE sculpture up the Parkway to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The trick was to make the park more connected to its surroundings while maintaining the feel of an oasis. “People wanted it greener, more open, multi-use,” Jones says

Earlier this year, Philadelphia restaurateur and Top Chef season 7 winner Kevin Sbraga closed the last outpost of his once-ascendant restaurant empire, the Fat Ham. The reason behind the downfall, according to Sbraga’s own analysis? It grew too fast. If Sbraga had a chance to do it over again, he’d take it a step at a time, he told reporters. Down in East Passyunk, another local Top Chef  winner, Nicholas Elmi, has taken a different approach. He opened the tiny BYOB Laurel in 2013, just a few months before his winning finale episode aired. At 22 seats, it was a conspicuously modest start. Then last summer, he expanded ever so slightly into the space next door, with the wine-and-cocktail bar ITV. This fall, he’s branching out of South Philly and opening a new “chef-driven” bar in a historic building at 52 South 2nd Street in Old City. “Being able to do my second restaurant right next door has been really eye-opening for me,” says Elmi. He’s been talking about opening in the Old City location with Stephen Simons and David Frank—who own Cantina Los Caballitos, also on East Passyunk Avenue, and Royal Izakaya in Queen Village, among other eateries—for two-and-a-half years. “We’re taking it nice and slow.” The new bar will be called Royal Boucherie. Elmi says to expect a more casual atmosphere than that of either of his South Philly locations, but he doesn’t plan on dumbing down the refined French cuisine he’s known for. “I know what I want to cook, and then we’re kind of gearin

Philadelphia may be more commonly known for its grit than its grandeur, but in the 100 years since it was paved, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway—the stately boulevard that connects LOVE Park to the Philadelphia Museum of Art—has earned its place as a bona fide Philadelphia cultural icon. To celebrate its centennial, the parkway Council is pulling out all the stops, with dozens of events, discussions and art installations planned for the next year and a half. Starting this weekend, many of the major cultural institutions lining the mile-long roadway are hosting collections and exhibitions marking the parkway’s history and development. On weekend nights in late September and early October, 900 lanterns and 27 pedicabs will light up the parkway as part of an experience choreographed by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. In December, artist Jennifer Steinkamp debuts “Winter Fountains,” a series of video installations set up along the drive designed to complement the parkway’s water fountains and botanical features. And next year, art historian David Brownlee rereleases his book Building the City Beautiful: The Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “The parkway is an emblem of a city that survives change and leads the way forward,” says Brownlee. While Philadelphians had been talking about connecting Center City to Fairmount Park since the early 19th century, a plan for the parkway wasn’t approved until the 1890s. It took another decade—and the demolition of 1,300

Over the past decade, neighborhoods on both sides of Washington Avenue have changed, with thousands of new residents, skyrocketing housing prices and hip new businesses everywhere in sight. Still, because of the weirdness of the four-lane thoroughfare that separates the sides, lined as it is with relics of an industrial past, the divide between South Philly and Center City remains intact. But that may change: Here are five projects poised to connect these two thriving sections of the city. Broad Street and Washington Avenue For a while, it seemed like developer Bart Blatstein, who built the Piazza in Northern Liberties, was going to make the biggest mark on the corner of Broad and Washington, which has been flanked by massive vacant lots for years. But where his project on the northeast corner stalled, the project on the northwest corner, Lincoln Square, is barreling ahead. So far, retail tenants confirmed for the 300-plus-unit apartment complex include Target, a supermarket (rumored to be natural-foods purveyor Sprouts) and a PetSmart. Lincoln Square 24th Street and Washington Avenue Developers have gotten the okay to build a 100-plus-unit apartment complex with ground-floor retail on a vacant lot at the west end of Washington Avenue. But it’s been a few years since the approval, and nothing has been built. Across the street, on 23rd Street, the former Frankford Chocolate Factory has been bought by developers, and there’s a proposal for apartments at 25th Street, as well.