Shelby Park

Shelby Park is a rare find! Located in the heart of Nashville’s eclectic East Side, Shelby with its beautiful trails and educational wildlife amenities is enough to leave the typical city dweller in absolute awe. Great for walking, running, and even biking! If you haven’t visited or haven’t visited in quite some time, it’s a MUST ADD to your to do list.

I am in a deeply committed, borderline unhealthy relationship with this park. I’ve spent an irresponsible amount of my life here and it keeps turning me into an endurance athlete against my will. First 100+ mile bike ride? Here. First ultra marathon? Here. At this point I’m one trail run away from qualifying for something I didn’t sign up for. I also golf here more than a retired grandpa in Florida. Like, aggressively. If you need a tee time, sorry, I might already be there. I’ve made friends, ran races, had full character development arcs, and I see the same deer so often that we’re basically on a “head nod” basis. I’ve named them. They know my schedule. One of them owes me money. Honestly, Nashville Parks should either sponsor me, put my name on a bench, or issue a restraining order.

This is one of the nicest urban parks I’ve visited. I went early on a week day and stayed for a few hours. A number of different parking areas. Many walking and biking trails connect through out the park. I bet the wetlands have done great wildlife during fall and winter migrations. Definitely dog friendly. They do have some plumbed bathrooms but also had clean porta potties at convenient locations. This is a big park with all sorts of options for you.

I spent the morning at Shelby Park volunteering and helping clean up the park. I got to work with CD Paddock and learned about all of the fun stuff the park has to offer. From the Beer garden to disc golf the park has everything a family needs to have fun for the day...or weekend. Thanks Shelby Park for having me.

We hosted our New Player Intro Day for the Nashville Gaelic Athletic Club the weekend before last at Shelby Park was the perfect spot. Tons of space, easy to access, and a great vibe for introducing folks to Gaelic football, hurling, camogie, and ladies’ football. Even with folks totally new to the games, we had an awesome turnout - everyone got stuck in and had a blast learning the basics. Plenty of room to run drills and play scrimmages, plus the sidelines made for great hangout zones for friends and family. Also, the melty bird statue is LEGENDARY. Totally random, totally awesome, and 100% worth a photo or two. We’re big fans of unique park art and this one did not disappoint. Big shoutout to the city for keeping this park clean and welcoming. We’ll definitely be back soon! -Nashville GAC

Beautiful park you can lose yourself in! Plenty of walking around the lake with also lots of activities to take part in...or if you just want to sit and take in the scenery this may be your spot! Comes with a dog park!

I can't even count all of the time I spent on the trails here. Dozens of miles walking on the trails to get out in nature and unplug from the day-to-day grind. People on this trail are typically very respectful. The bicycles are occasionally annoying as they fly are breakneck speed as if trying to set a new record or compete in a competition. So alls to say, be on the lookout for bikes. The trails here offer a really cool diversity in scenery; ranging from lovely water views to deer meandering in the woods, to old bridges, side-trails into nature, and incredible boggy areas.

Shelby Park is an awesome, huge nature reserve type park. Yes, there’s a playground, but we didn’t spend time there this time. We were enjoying the trails. So many trails! Really cool old train bridges, creeks, and bogs. Awesome place to go to be out in the middle of nature.