Explore the best parks and nature reserves in Johannesburg for 2025

Johannesburg is a freakishly green metropolis. Over 10 million trees call the city home—about two for each human resident. And a good proportion of all those leafy locals do their thing in parks and nature reserves which are an underrated delight of Joburg life.

Some are big enough to walk in for hours, and wild enough to host eagles, antelope, porcupines and genets in their cliffs and kloofs. Reconnecting a stressed-out city to nature and its distant past, these refuges are spaces for peace, play, picnicking and perambulation.

Some fear Joburg’s parks as crime hotspots. Caution is always recommended, but in the parks featured below, the risk of mugging is low, especially if you stick to the paths and open spaces—and extremely low to zero if you visit when they are busiest, on weekday early mornings, weekday late afternoons, and all day on weekends.

Here’s a guide to Johannesburg’s 10 best parks and nature reserves, ranked in no particular order. All but three of them are free of charge.

• Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve
• The Wilds Nature Reserve
• Kloofendal Nature Reserve
• Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens
• Delta Park
• Johannesburg Botanical Gardens
• Melville Koppies Nature Reserve
• Huddle Park
• Rietfontein Nature Reserve
• Modderfontein Reserve

Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve

Though situated only a few minute's drive south of the CBD, Klipriviersberg is the city's biggest proclaimed nature reserve, covering 700 hectares. Its verdant hills, flanking the lovely Kliprivier stream, are home to a catalogue of animals, from zebra, red hartebeest, mountain reedbuck and black wildebeest to genets, hares and Cape clawless otter. Throw in about 230 bird species that have been seen within its borders, and a range of trails that can neutralise up to three hours of hiking time, and you have a nature-lovers paradise.

The views across the valley can be enthralling during midsummer—often it’s hard to believe you’re slap bang in the middle of south Joburg. The park’s visitor culture is warm and friendly, with hikers more likely to greet and chat with other groups than in the northern suburbs’ parks.

The Wilds Nature Reserve

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The Wilds was once the lunch-hour bolthole for glamorous picnickers during the boom years of Joburg’s post-war CBD. Then it went south. For decades, it was neglected, overgrown and feared as dangerous. Recently, thanks to the civic-minded exploits of an enterprising artist, James Delaney, who lives in a block overlooking the park, The Wilds has made an astonishing comeback. In 2011, Delaney started pruning the overgrowth and installing his exuberant steel statues of indigenous animals. He also challenged City Parks officials, neighbours and friends to join the work and reclaim the space.

Now the Wilds is a serene and safe expanse of manicured lawns and verdant indigenous forest, spanning two hills flanking Joe Slovo Drive. Parking spaces are few, but if need be, you can park at St John’s College, a five-minute walk away.

Kloofendal Nature Reserve

Overlooking the western satellite town of Roodepoort is the hilly Kloofendal Nature Reserve, a beautiful 128-hectare sanctuary for abundant birds and mammals, including duiker and mountain reedbuck. It’s also the site of the first gold mine in Johannesburg, and still in place near the entrance is a huge stamp mill —an 1880s-vintage machine used to extract gold by crushing ore. T

he trails are varied and well-kept, and the longest is a two-hour route, commanding stellar views from the park’s central heights. Look out also for guided visits with the South African Archaeological Society.

Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens

Also in the Roodepoort area is the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens —a superbly managed park centred on a fascinating showcase of indigenous flora interspersed with romantic shaded lawns. Tickets are R100 for adults, R25 for children, free entry for kids under 6, and free entry for pensioners on Tuesdays. Cheap at the price—you get to spend quality time with rare cycads and succulents, or meander along streambanks full of river bushwillows and white stinkwoods.

The gardens also contain the dramatic Witpoortjie waterfall, home to a family of Verreaux’s eagles, and a 2-hour geological trail along the Roodekrans Ridge, which loops back to the gardens. There’s even a chance of spotting jackals who are occasional visitors to the lonelier heights.

Delta Park

Delta Park is the central suburbs’ biggest natural space, spanning 104 dog-friendly hectares along the Braamfontein Spruit River. Situated between Victory Park, and Craighall Park, Delta is named for the Greek letter due to its triangular outline and is much-loved by mountain bikers walkers, joggers, and kids.

The terrain is a patchwork of grasslands, woodlands, and bird-haunted dams, and every March, you can wander among vast explosions of pink and white cosmos blossoms. The Spruit (stream) can sometimes be a little stinky, with litter arriving from upstream, but Delta Park’s thousands of devotees feel it’s a price well worth paying.

Johannesburg Botanical Gardens

Just up the road from Delta is Emmarentia, officially called the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens. It boasts a massive, elegant rose garden that contains 10,000 roses and is the scene of countless wedding shoots for spectacularly dressed couples hailing from all over Africa. There’s also a first-rate succulent garden and a dog-friendly zone that covers half the park. Kite-flying, cricket and languorous picnics are ‘big things’ on the lawn that slopes down to the Emmarentia Dam, which is typically bustling with canoeists, ducks and geese.

Melville Koppies Nature Reserve

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Melville Koppies is a nature reserve and Joburg heritage site, wedged between Melville, Greenside and Northcliff, whose rocky, grassy hillsides are rich in indigenous flora, birdlife and archaeological sites. The koppies contain physical evidence of Early Stone Age human settlements, dating back hundreds of thousands of years, along with more recent Iron Age kraal walls from about 1000 years ago. You can join expert guided walks on Sundays or explore the trails yourself. 

Huddle Park

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Huddle Park in Linksfield is a golf course, but it’s surrounded by an expanse of grassland and forest, which is cross-crossed with walking and cycle trails. Day passes are R50 per adult and R30 per child, and entry is free for kids under 3. It’s a serene meander between little dams and flatter terrain than most big Joburg parks. So if you want to add some adrenaline to the mix, no problem. Extra options include golf, acrobranch, five-a-side football, dog training, horseriding, and padel.

Rietfontein Nature Reserve

Small but well-formed, Rietfontein Nature Reserve in Paulshof, just north of the M1 Western Bypass, located in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, is a 25-hectare sanctuary beloved by birds and birders alike. Centred on a proud rocky koppie (an isolated hill in Afrikaans), the park offers views of the expanse of north Joburg—you’ll just have to tune out the traffic from the freeway.

Modderfontein Reserve

Because the eastern edge of Joburg is largely flat, it didn’t get much in the way of big-proclaimed parks when town planners were carving out public spaces. One privately owned exception is Modderfontein Reserve, a sprawling 275-hectare park incorporating wetlands, forests and grasslands, and home to a host of birds and small mammals. Hiking tickets are R45 for adults and R30 for children.