East Central Illinois offers an abundance of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors!
The Urbana Park District has 24 park sites, with everything from boating and baseball to swimming and sledding hills.
Meadowbrook Park features the Urbana Park District’s largest play structure, Wandell Sculpture Garden, it’s own farmstead, herb garden, 30 acres of recreated Illinois Tallgrass prairie, organic garden plots, and walking trails.
Lohmann Park is the home of the Disc Golf Course. This 9-hole public course is an inexpensive family sport played like golf, only with a flying disc instead of clubs and balls. All ages can enjoy the soccer and cricket fields.
The Champaign Park District currently has 58 parks totaling over 552 acres within the city limits, giving Champaign one of the highest ratios of park land to developed land of any American city.
West Side Park is located in downtown Champaign, just blocks away from City Hall. Originally zoned for the city square and county courthouse, it became the first park in the system in 1859. Notable monuments in West Side Park include the fountain and statue “A Prayer for Rain”, the Lincoln Monolith, and statues commemorating the Indian War.
Champaign’s Centennial Park is the largest park in the park system with 134 acres of land. The park contains baseball fields, tennis & volleyball courts, picnic pavilions, Children’s Prairie Farm, trails, and the newly constructed Sholem Aquatic Center.