Aug. 16 Festival to Feature Contests, Games, Live Music and Great Prizes

Celebrate the summer and treat your family to a daylong series of free events in five of our signature parks. Activities will include scavenger hunts, letter-boxing, croquet, kickball and much more. Festivities conclude at Poets' Walk Park with live music featuring the Ebony Hillbillies, refreshments, games and prizes -- including a chance to win a brand new Perception kayak, complete with paddle, lifejacket and rooftop car carrier!

9 a.m. - 1 p.m. -- Activities in Featured Parks

Enjoy as many adventures as you can -- they're all different! While hunting for one-of-a-kind Quest stamps, you'll make some fascinating discoveries about the natural world around you.
One lucky festival-goer will win a brand new kayak!

Fishkill Ridge: Hike about three miles, rising 1,000 vertical feet for a magnificent view of the Hudson Valley. Along the way, use your Scenic Hudson ParkQuest book to search for Quest boxes that reveal secrets about the park's ecology. Moderately strenuous; takes about 2 hours.

Black Creek Preserve: During this hike to the Hudson River, your Scenic Hudson ParkQuest book will introduce you to the preserve's most important natural and manmade features, as well as the creatures that depend on them for life. Moderately strenuous; takes about one hour and 30 minutes.

Foundry Dock Park: Using a compass for navigation, putt your way around a croquet course while learning about the Hudson Highlands and the West Point Foundry, a 19th-century technological powerhouse. Easy; takes about 45 minutes.

Shaupeneak Ridge: While in search of your Quest, get to know the plant and animal communities in each of Shaupeneak Ridge's habitats—forest, field and pond/marsh. Easy; takes about one hour.

3-6 p.m. -- Festival Finale / Concert

Poets' Walk Park: Fun is the name of the game. Enjoy great food. Join a team for volleyball or kickball. Toss a flying disc. Explore Poets' Walk via our exciting (and poetic) Scenic Hudson ParkQuest. Music by the toe-tappin' Ebony Hillbillies starts at 4 - be sure to bring your dancing shoes! At 5:30 someone will be lucky enough to win a kayak package -- complete with paddle, lifejacket and car-top carrier -- courtesy of Dick's Sporting Goods in Poughkeepsie.

Please visit the Park Festival page to RSVP. See you in the Parks!

Our Aug. 16 Parks Festival will conclude with a free concert by the Ebony Hillbillies.