A day spent at the beach or by the pool in the summer is a core Long Island experience. There’s nothing better than a dip in the water to cool off from the heat, and a trip to Jones Beach State Park has it all: sun, sand and, soon, a new safe place to have fun in the water!
School’s out, the temperature is rising, and everyone’s thoughts are turning to summer getaways. If you’re looking for a new place to spend an afternoon, a weekend, or longer and not break the bank doing it, you’ve come to the right place. We asked our Fun Experts to take you on a tour of some of the lesser-known, hidden-gem spots in our system, and they delivered: fascinating history, peaceful lakeside oases, and camping away from the crowds. Let’s go!
The Roberto Clemente State Park Learn-to-Swim Class of 2024! Under the NY SWIMS initiative, State Parks operated 22 Learn-to-Swim programs statewide in 2024, triple the number of the previous year.
“This system was built for you.” Over the past 100 years, this ideal has driven our agency’s growth beyond its original visions. New York State’s parks and historic sites contribute to their communities’ sense of identity. Businesses thrive thanks to park and historic site visitors. Generations of New Yorkers have worked at our parks and sites, some for their entire career, others for a season.
New York’s historic preservation initiatives have also had a positive ripple effect. Designating heritage areas and preserving landmarks sparked community pride — and investment. Tax credits help both individual homeowners and commercial developers preserve and re-develop historic structures. The State and National Registers of Historic Places and the Historic Business Preservation Registry fosters connections with the past.
Throughout 2024, we celebrated the intangible benefits of our system by collecting your visitor memories and offering hundreds of special events and activities. As we look to 2025 and beyond, let’s explore the ways in which our agency benefits all New Yorkers, by the numbers.
If you’ve explored our Blazing A Trail Centennial timeline, you’ll know that the creation of New York’s state park system was influenced in part by two larger social movements: A new environmental conservation movement that sought to protect open spaces from development, and a growing social reform movement that sought to address the inequalities that arose during America’s Gilded Age of the late 1800s.
Two lantern slides and their captions perfectly depict the social goals of the New York state park system at its creation: a haven for working city-dwellers and a place of self-improvement. Courtesy of the The Palisades Interstate Park Commission collection at nyheritage.org.
The state park system was founded on the value of the outdoors to public physical and mental health, and the pressing need to preserve land for public use. In a statement supportive of the 1924 State Park Plan, then-state senator Nathan Straus Jr. said:
“The city dweller often forgets that he is closely related to the other members of the animal kingdom. Like the other members, he loves the earth and the trees and craves contact with the soil. Sensing instinctively the need of the open country, the wealthy city man joins a golf club and organizes a fish and game reservation where he can enjoy camping and outdoor life. The city dweller of moderate means has the same cravings and the same needs. But when he takes his family out for a Sunday, or for a longer outing, he finds himself on a congested road hemmed in by private property, which is marked with the sign “No Trespassing.” Where is he to go? The answer is, the state park.”
New York State Parks and Historic Sites Blog 