Tifft Nature Preserve

Located three miles from downtown Buffalo on the Lake Erie shoreline, this unique urban nature reserve offers 264-acre (106 hectares) of trails, anachronistic boardwalks and a marsh. This preserve is the environmental education site for the Buffalo Museum of Science and it's perfect for bird-watching, hiking, and family picnics—not to mention snowshoeing and cross-country skiing during the cold winters. In the 1950s, the site was used as a refuse dump, but thankfully it was converted to a nature preserve in the 1980s. Admission is free but donations are requested.