It feels almost too obvious to pick Forest Park as the city’s best park. You want to root for the underdog, and that is in no way difficult with St. Louis’ vast collection of amazing parks. You could easily make the case for Carondelet Park with its ornate boathouse and dueling lakes or O’Fallon which has a matching boathouse as the backdrop for fishermen. Tower Grove Park isn’t a city-owned park, but that technicality doesn’t keep it from being an undeniable gem. We could go on, but Forest Park is the one we come back to again and again. At 1,300 acres, it dwarfs New York City’s Central Park and somehow doesn’t waste an inch. Do you want to churn across Post-Dispatch Lake on a paddleboat? Bike along a spider web of trails and roads? Spy on migrating birds in the forests? Hike the wooded paths? Visit the world-class Saint Louis Zoo? Stroll through the Art Museum? Explore relics of the 1904 World’s Fair? Picnic in the grass? Run Art Hill? Ice skate in the winter? Golf in the summer? Forest Park offers endless ways to spend the days. It’s not just the best park in St. Louis; it’s one of the best parks in the country. — Doyle Murphy