Part scavenger hunt, part outdoor recreation, the 2023 Nebraska Great Park Pursuit is back for its 16th year. The free program encourages participants to discover park areas statewide by visiting a group of 20 community, regional, state and federal parks between now and Oct. 31, 2023.
To participate, teams of up to 10 individuals must register online, in advance, at negpp.org. All ages may participate. Teams then follow clues from the website or Great Park Pursuit mobile app to find a program post within the park area. Once found, the team marks its visit in the app or makes a pencil impression of the post to prove its visit.
To encourage participation, teams can win prizes such as a GoPro camera, cabin stays, backyard game packages, Nebraska state park permits, Nebraskaland Magazine subscriptions and more. The more parks visited, the more prizes a team is eligible to win, or the more entries it can get for the grand prize: an outdoor recreation package valued at $1,500. Prizes and entry into drawings are based on the number of post impressions or park visits recorded.
This year’s participating parks are:
Ash Hollow State Historical Park, Lewellen; Bluestem State Recreation Area, Martell; Bridgeport SRA, Bridgeport; Buffalo Bill SRA, North Platte; Calamus Reservoir SRA, Burwell; Chadron State Park, Chadron; City Park, Kimball; Cottonmill Park, Kearney; Danish Alps SRA, Hubbard; Dead Timber SRA, Scribner; Felber Park, Hartington; Keller Park SRA, Long Pine; Legion Park, Sidney; Medicine Creek SRA, Cambridge; Memorial Park, Omaha; Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Trail Visitors Center, Nebraska City; Mormon Island SRA, Doniphan; Tara Hills Park, Papillion; Union Plaza, Lincoln; Veterans Memorial Park, Holdrege.
The Great Park Pursuit mobile app is available on Google Play and the Apple iStore.
The Great Park Pursuit is a partnership between the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the Nebraska Recreation and Parks Association. It is sponsored by the Nebraska Chiropractic Physicians Association and the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District. Designed to promote active lifestyles while increasing awareness of the state’s nature-rich outdoor recreation opportunities, the program sees more than 700 teams participate each year, with more than 100,000 park visits annually.