Greenville's best dog parks, from Conestee's double yards to Paris Mountain's foothills trails.

Greenville city ordinance requires dogs to be leashed in all public parks except designated off-leash areas. The fenced yards at Conestee Dog Park, Pelham Mill Dog Park, and the Pavilion are the only formally off-leash sites in the directory. Every other park on this page, including Cleveland, Legacy, and Unity, is leashed. Paris Mountain State Park is leashed on all trails under state park rules.

There's no off-leash permit or park entry fee at the county-operated fenced yards. Paris Mountain State Park charges a 6-dollar-per-person day-use fee. Pelham Mill's dog yards run on a 24-hour unlocked-gate model.

The off-leash yards don't check vaccinations at the gate, but DHPP, bordetella, and canine flu are worth keeping current if your dog mixes regularly at Conestee or Pavilion, both of which regularly see 10 to 20 dogs on weekend afternoons.

June through early September runs humid and high-80s-to-90s, and shade is the difference between a usable park and a skipped one. Conestee and Pavilion both hold tree canopy over parts of the fenced area; Legacy and Unity do not. Spring and fall are the long peak seasons, with pleasant weather from March through early June and again from late September through November. Winter stays mild; snow is rare enough that a flake on the ground is a local event. Post-hurricane-remnant rain and the red-clay mud that follows are the other variable worth planning around.

Cleveland Park and Unity Park bracket downtown along the Swamp Rabbit Trail, with Cleveland wrapping the Greenville Zoo and Unity at the west end of Main. Pavilion sits north in Taylors at the rec complex off Wade Hampton. Pelham Mill is northeast in Greer along the Enoree River. Paris Mountain State Park is six miles north of downtown along State Park Road.