Gage Park is Topeka's main public park and home to the Topeka Zoo, but worth visiting independently of the zoo. The 160-acre site in west Topeka contains an antique Denzel carousel (operating since 1908, still priced for families), a miniature train that circles the park, an extensive rose garden that peaks in June, and a disc golf course that draws a dedicated local following.
The park is free to enter, and the carousel and train are among the more affordable family amusements in any American city. The rose garden contains thousands of plants and is at its peak from late May through June. The park's layout — broad lawns, mature trees, and the meandering paths between attractions — gives it a character closer to a 19th-century pleasure ground than a modern recreation facility, which is exactly what it is.