Ahhh Dallas, it has been a long time since I last graced your barbequed shores. On a recent visit to the Lone Star State, I decided to take in some of the local trails and found myself in Garland Texas hiking around the Spring Creek Forest Preserve.
The preserve is split into two sections, each of which has about 1-3 miles of trails. There aren't a lot of maps of the trails or the area although it seems like plans are underway to connect several of the "greenways" in Garland together into one long trail much like the Arroyo Seco around the Rose Bowl.
On this day we decided to hike around 2 unconnected green spaces in the preserve, first starting off in the rather paved portion of the park.
Paved Portion:
The paved portion lives up to its name
but going through the park, your eyes do not remain down and disappointed long but are drawn upward to beautiful oak trees and a great forest canopy.
The road splits into two ways, if you go right, the path heads to two directions, go right and you follow the river
heading to several lookout points that look out to well, trees. These paths do interconnect through a use path that was full of mud but a welcomed break from the paved paths.
The paved path eventually leads to the road
but you can turn back and follow the paved trail back to the parking lot of the preserve.
Along the way there are lots of flower watchin opportunities
and you are constantly reminded how green the rest of the country is compared to Southern California.
Unpaved Portion:
This portion of the park is by far the most stellar of the two due in no small part to the rock canyon that follows the river.
There are several trails in the area and while you can certainly take the various trails through the forest, I recommend hanging out here and soaking in the views.
Overall, these various paths offer nice rambles around Garland. North Texas is flat and so is the hiking but that doesn't mean you can't have something purty to look at while you do so!
For more info on Spring Creek click here: http://www.springcreekforest.org/
Hi! How far did you hike in total you think at the Spring Creek Preserve? Most other things online say it's less than a mile in length.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Yes, definitely less than a mile, thanks for reading!
Delete