Parks & Recreation - Parks, Lakes, And Recreation

Kansas City and Mother Nature? We’re like that. She blessed us with a landscape of shimmering lakes, lush green spaces, golden prairie grass, and acres of woodlands. Everywhere you look we’re surrounded by the great outdoors, which might account for the dozens of sports activities and organizations you’ll read about in the Sports chapter.

But for now let’s see just how easy being green can be. Kansas City, Missouri, alone has 200 parks, including the third largest metropolitan park in the country, and more than 130 miles of boulevards and parkways covering some 10,000 acres. Downtown parks, sometimes shaded more by skyscrapers than sycamores, give city workers a respite from phones, e-mail, and meetings long enough to enjoy lunch alfresco, listen to a jazz concert, or just people watch. In addition, the city is ringed by hundreds of lakes, woods, and parks, places where you can commune with nature, possibly feed apples to bison, and most definitely feed your soul. With an abundance of rolling acres, fragrant floral displays, lakes overflowing with sporting amenities, and cool, sandy beaches, it’s easy to say, “You bet!” when someone tells you to take it outside.

And how we do love our gardens. Kansas City gardeners have fought clay, rocks, and a pernicious Zone 5 to create some of the country’s most stunning groupings of flowers and plantings. Drive down any street and you’ll notice the fruits of their labor as front doors are defined by masses of flowers. Each season brings another reason to celebrate. Spring’s irises, tulips, and daffodils give way to mounds of impatiens, splashy azaleas, and daylilies, and then mum’s the word each fall. Where the sun won’t reach, we plant hundreds of hostas. Backyards are filled with koi ponds, Japanese gardens, shady decks, and New Orleans–style courtyards. And while you may not want to stop the car to peer over a stranger’s gate, you can get inspiration and fresh air at one of our public gardens described here. We highly recommend our 915-acre Powell Gardens for starters.

There’s far more to describe than one chapter will allow, so in the Close-up we’ve listed area parks and recreation departments and garden clubs where you can learn about other green spaces, special events, and classes. You may also want to peruse the Annual Events and Festivals chapter for special events regarding flora and fauna throughout the year. Perhaps there’s a water garden tour or butterfly festival near you.

Chances are by the time you have that picnic basket ready, you’ll have discovered a pastoral spot on which to spread a blanket. To help you find it, we’ve divided this chapter by activity type. Listings are in Kansas City, Missouri, unless otherwise noted.

Parks & Recreation - Sports

Ballgames! Getcher red-hot ballgames here! In Kansas City we love our sports. Always have, always will, whether our teams are winning or not. And our sports town status began long before the Royals and Chiefs suited up. It started in 1884 when the Kansas City Unions baseball team first took the field.

But it was the Kansas City Monarchs, those champs of the Negro Leagues, that really put us on the map. Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, and Buck O’Neil were so important to the sport and this city that we built the country’s only Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (www.nlbm.com).

And no other city in America can rival our history of college tournament basketball. A tournament—Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight, Big Twelve—has been played in Kansas City every year, sometimes twice a year, since 1946. But it started long before that. In 1937 what is now known as the NAIA tournament, the nation’s oldest, began at downtown Municipal Auditorium. By the time the NCAA Tournament final came here in 1940, 10,000 fans packed the stands and March Madness became an official affliction. The NCAA returned in 2005 after a short stint in Texas. And after an eight-year absence, the NAIA returned to Kansas City in 2002. We remain the undisputed Tournament Town.

We’re not always watching sports . . . sometimes we’re participating in them. You’ll find plenty of athletic activities to keep you in liniment, including golf, cycling, hiking, and running. We’re also big on joining clubs so that we can talk about our sports when we’re not watching or playing; for instance, for a city without a single snowcapped mountain, we have one of the country’s largest ski clubs. You’ll get contact information in this chapter. But first, let’s hit one out of the ballpark.

The listings in this chapter are grouped by spectator, participation, and family sports. The facilities are located in Kansas City, Missouri, unless otherwise noted.