Saratoga Spa State Park

The Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs, New York, is a historical 2,379-acre park that features many activities, aside from just wandering along the grounds, that is not particularly suited to your small, fuzzy, wet-nosed friend: i.e., Woof. For example, there is the Saratoga Automobile Museum. After checking out a few of the running boards, Woof will likely be bored there. 

There is the regionally famous Saratoga Performing Arts Center, where great concerts are held from rock to classical – boring! There is the Roosevelt Baths and Springs, featuring the only active geysers in the United States east of the Mississippi, foul-smelling affairs that your dog will love immediately, but still, there is not much to do there. Then there's tennis, golf and a few other games with mixed entertainment value. 

But then, some clever group of humanoids went the extra mile and developed the Saratoga Spa State Dog Park with not one, but two large fenced in areas for Woof to relax, run, sniff, dig, look for mud holes, you name it. Now we're barking – am I right? The dog park is just off of Crescent Street (right across from the Lincoln Baths) in the city/village of Saratoga Springs. 

The park, which opened in 2015, includes about a half acres fenced in for small woofs and a larger area for big woofs. The park is open from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and it's open to anyone with a dog – or someone who just likes to be around dogs. When it opened, one local resident told the local newspaper, the Saratogian, that the park was a welcome relieve given the local wildlife – porcupines – had been attacking her dogs. 

“So it's good to have a safe place here,” the resident, Karen Christopher, said. While it is in the city proper, the dog park is part of the state park system. “According to NYS Parks and Recreation Law, dogs must be on a leash at all times within a state park, yet many owners let their dogs run free in the grassy area,” the newspaper noted. Of course, the dog park is an off-leash zone, well fenced, safe from porcupines.