McCarthy Youth and Conservation County Park is a 348-acre recreation park designed to connect families, youth groups, and individuals with outdoor conservation and recreation experiences. The park offers a reservable shelter, reservable group camp, play equipment, hiking, cross-country skiing, equestrian and snowshoe trails, a sledding hill, picnic areas, and expansive prairie and wetland restoration.
This is the first playground in the Dane County Parks System to feature a poured-in-place rubber surface for improved accessibility. Children can enjoy slides, a treehouse, ropes and log features, and smooth, inclusive pathways that support play for a wide range of ages and abilities.
Restored wetlands and prairies attract migrating waterfowl and grassland birds and provide important nesting habitat for wildlife.
The park is located on the ancestral homeland of the Ho-Chunk people, and the Ho-Chunk Nation is an active partner in developing interpretive sites throughout the park. The vision for the park began in 1974, when Russell and Ella McCarthy donated 180 acres of their land. Their goal was to create “a place where kids from the city could learn about nature.”
This park is supported by Friends of McCarthy Park.
