Reporter's Notebook: Sex parks around the nation!

Thu., Jul. 9 2009 @ 11:57AM

Related to this week's feature story, we took a very informal poll of our colleagues at Village Voice Media newspapers around the country, asking about their cities' clandestine hookup places. Here's a sampling:

Our sister paper in St. Louis let us know about Forest Park, a 1,293-acre monster that's stuffed with places to get it on. Recently, Forest Park made news when a guy picked up a couple of lesbians and took them to the park to smoke weed. The dude's night didn't turn out well.

According to the Seattle Weekly, the gay sex capital of the Great Northwest is Volunteer Park, and "bonus points go to whoever bones down in the Water Tower, which affords one of the best views of the city."

The Houston Press relayed that Memorial Park is the place to cruise, even though it's in an upscale part of town and is frequented by joggers. A police sting conducted in Memorial Park's bathrooms attracted controversy last spring.

Up north, the hometown staffers at the Minneapolis City Pages came to the consensus that Crosby Park in St. Paul is the skankiest. Minneapolis is also home to a wild spot called Hidden Beach on Cedar Lake. Before the police cracked down, it was the spot for drugs, drinking and skinny dipping, but people probably still find ways to get their kicks after dark -- there's even a mud pit, our sources say.

The OC Weekly sends word of several West Coast wonderlands: Santiago Park in Santa Ana, California; Hillcrest Park in Fullerton;, Estancia Adobe Park in Costa Mesa and Trail Six at San Onofre State Beach. That last locale, OC-ers say, is "an area near nude beach, which gets blamed for sexploits even though nudists claim it ain't them getting it on." Their blog post on the subject is here.

Our left coast friends at SF Weekly say that the No. 1 locale for gay cruisers there is east of Park Chalet, near the Golden Gate Park windmills, where the park meets the sea. "Bushes and backseats are occupied," we hear. Other San Francisco cruising spots: Buena Vista Park in the Upper Haight (don't forget to take your picture at Haight and Ashbury!), the horseshoe pits on Fulton Street in Golden Gate Park (but it's a little low-rent, FYI), and a cliff-side trail between the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum, the Holocaust Memorial and a mountain bluff called Lands End.

Last but not least, Green Turtle Park (aka Avalon Park) in Fort Pierce, Florida, is the notorious nook for nooky, according to pals at the Broward New Times.

Happy trails!

Art by by Travis Pitts