Belle Isle State Park beckons travelers who want a full menu of outdoor activities. This is a small state park, yet it boasts picnic areas, boat launches, hiking and biking trails and a host of other well-maintained amenities. Keep an eye out for numerous bald eagles patrolling this marsh and forest habitat.
The entire park is built around a Georgian mansion – the Belle Isle Mansion – that feels like a dictionary illustration that hangs next to the word 'mansion.' It was built around 1760 by Raleigh Downman and restored in the 1940s by Thomas Tileston Waterman, the first director of the Historic American Buildings Survey. Today the mansion can be admired from afar, but the big building itself is privately owned.
Another onsite historic property, the Bel Air House (no fresh princes, sadly), is available for overnight rentals; there are also campsites available.
