This practical guide takes readers to the best trails found in the Great Trinity Forest, all within easy reach of Downtown Dallas. Destinations include less traveled, low-traffic areas for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding in the City of Dallas. Joppa Preserve, McCommas Bluff Preserve, Trinity River Wetlands, Texas Horse Park, Dallas Trinity Paddling Trail, Lower White Rock Creek, Sycamore Dixon, Texas Buckeye Trail, Dallas Whitewater Wave, Levee Trails, Rochester Park and more.
The Trinity River Buckeye Grove bathed in sunset overlooking the Trinity River, Dallas, Texas March 2013
One of the largest native flowering trees in Texas, the Texas Buckeye Tree Aesculus glabra var. arguta makes for one of the earliest and best shows of color in the state. The Great Trinity Forest holds prime examples of these species many in a special grove inside Rochester Park. Coinciding with the annual bloom of these trees is a free walking tour hosted by Master Naturalist Jim Flood. His website http://www.texasbuckeyetrail.org/ has details on guided hikes the second and third weekends of March 2013. Jim Flood's 2013 Buckeye Hike Schedule. The Annual 2013 Buckeye Walks: Saturday March 9, 9am and 12 noon Sunday March 10, 9am and 12 noon Saturday March 16, 9am and 12 noon Sunday March 17, 9am and 12 noon
Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday March 10 (spring forward) Scheduled Hikes dependent upon weather conditions.
These hikes in particular are really the only formal scheduled guided hikes inside the Great Trinity Forest that I'm aware of and only occur once a year. For those interested in learning more about the Trinity River, Great Trinity Forest and background on the area, this is the hike to take.
Texas Buckeye Trail carpeted with flowering False Garlic Nothoscordum bivalve March 2013
Trail sign noting the Buckeye Grove Loop
Trail Beta: Bexar Street dead ends at the Rochester Park Levee, a small pavillion and trailhead kiosk are there. Cross a small ditch, up and over the levee, a decomposed granite trail surface leads to a concrete ADA compliant trail beyond. On the concrete trail, there are a series of round plaza areas with sandstone rock benches. Plexiglass/wood signs note the trail intersection to the natural paved path to the Buckeye Trail. The distance from the parking area to the Buckeye Grove is about 1/2 a mile one-way and makes for a 1 mile roundtrip. Trail is easy to walk, flat and other than a couple small tree trunks on the trail is easy to walk. What is called an 8 to 80 trail, anyone 8 years to 80 years could walk it alone.
The Path Less Traveled
Other less formal undefined trails (not part of the Buckeye Trail tour) lead away from the Buckeye Trail. One in particular that loosely follows the Trinity River to the mouth of White Rock Creek. Most recently written up in a post back in December the Bois d' Arc Trail. Below is the most complete map I have of trails in this area. Based on my own GPS data.
William Blair Park Trails
The Texas Buckeye
Texas Buckeye Aesculus glabra var. arguta
From the Texas Native Plants Database: Texas Buckeye has palmately compound leaves with seven to nine (sometimes eleven) leaflets, vs. the five leaflets of red buckeye. The flowers are creamy white to light yellow, appearing in terminal clusters after the leaves appear. The fruit, a leathery capsule with blunt spines, has one to three large shiny seeds. The seeds are known to be poisonous, and it is possible that all parts of the plant are as well. It tends to prematurely drop leaves in hot, droughty situations, due to leaf scorch and fungal diseases. Usually a small shrub or small tree, Texas buckeye reaches its largest size (more than 40 feet) in the hard limestone of the central Edwards Plateau, although it also occurs in the northern Blacklands, Cross Timbers and Prairies, Pineywoods, and Post Oak Savannah.
Texas Buckeye leaf
Flowering stages of a Texas Buckeye
Individual trees flower at different rates. Visiting the Buckeye Grove early in the process, the stages of flowering are readily evident as seen below.
Texas Buckeye in full bloom March 2013
A little background
Much of the land where Rochester Park/William Blair Park now sits was once a dairy farm. Joseph Metzger, a Swiss immigrant and the founder of Metzger's Dairy, crossed into Texas holding his only possessions in a pack above his head while the Red River was at flood stage in 1875.Metzger proceeded to Dallas where he tried farming in the community of New Hope(Mesquite/Sunnyvale) in Dallas County. Not experiencing much success in that endeavor, he later worked for Chris Moser, one of the Southwest's first dairymen. In 1889 her rented a farm in the vicinity of North Carroll, Haskell and Ross Avenues where he began his own dairy with the purchase of 40 cows and a horse drawn milk wagon. In 1893 Metzger began purchasing land within the old John M Crockett survey for the purposes of relocating his dairy. At that time 64 acres were purchased less 1.8 acres which were to be used as the county road known as Miller's Ferry Road. Thus began a succession of street names(later Holmes Street and Hutchins Road) for the street now known as Lamar Street. A deed dated February 28, 1893 and filed the same day describes the land as extending from west of the railroad to the river. Metzger continued to acquire parcels of land until 1904. After all purchases were made, the farm which became the home of Metzger's Dairy contained 159.6 acres
Metzger's dairy flourished and by 1909 was purchased by Joseph Metzger's sons Carl and David. In 1922 it was listed in the Dallas Directory as Metzger Brothers Sanitary Jersey Dairy. At the time the dairy was considered the largest and most modern in Texas. The first Dallas dairy to use glass bottles. Following World War II, the rapid expansion of Dallas led to an expansion of the facilities. The Metzger family involvement ended in 1984 with the sale of Metzger Dairy of Dallas to Borden. This area is more recently noted for the large cache of Indian artifacts and Indian burials on the site. Seven sets of Indian remains have been found here. There are an estimated 34,000 Indian artifacts still at the site spanning thousands of years of human occupation. It has been nominated by a team of professional archeologists for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
Ned Fritz
The late Ned Fritz is the man who deserves the credit for saving what we have left of the Trinity and was a champion at saving the Texas Buckeye Grove at William Blair Park in Dallas. He made his lasting mark on the Trinity with his efforts to keep the government from channelizing the Trinity from Dallas to the Gulf of Mexico in 1973. What he saw back then was a patchwork collection of old remnants of Trinity River bottom land when roughly cobbled together formed one of the largest urban parkland areas in the United States.
Trout Lily (Erythronium albidum) pollinated by bee, Gateway Park, Great Trinity Forest in Dallas, Texas
The metamorphosis of the winter woods to that of spring begins on the smallest of scale. For a very short period of time every year, a blink of an eye, the old
patchwork of a now forgotten and paved over ecosystem comes to life. Before the Wild Plum or even the Red Bud, the isolated Trout Lily colonies hallmark a fitting beginning to a new season in the Texas woods.
Bobcat (Lynx rufus) hunting the open prairie in Dallas, Texas
Fossil embedded limestone hillsides of Dallas hide few secrets and bare their souls for the world to see. Terrace or slope might be a better descriptor for poor land that would scarcely feed a solitary goat. Soil to thin to plow for cotton or pasture for livestock, many of these wood breaked slopes remained free from development until the post war housing boom of the 1950s.
Here, free from flood and good shallow bedrock, Dallas built her residential subdivisions in the middle of century last. Just high enough to dodge the largest of floods but close enough to bottomland trees to enjoy filtered shade. The once worthless land became the high valued creek-lot backyards of the well heeled. With the homes came lot scraping construction, removing what was most likely near continuous colonies of trout lilies up and down the Trinity River drainage.
White Trout Lily, Dallas County, Texas
Like humans, the Trout Lily Erythronium albidum enjoys this transition zone too. The organically rich leaf strewn soils just inside the sun dappled treelines for a short few days become home to one of Texas most unique natural blooms.
Only 90 known colonies of White Trout Lilies are known to exist in the State of Texas in 15 counties. Trout Lilies, also called Dog-Tooth Violets or Adder's Tongues are a spring flowering woodland native to Texas. The flowers have 6 white tepals (inverted petals), 6 stamens and bright yellow anthers that hang downwards forming an inverted shape. Each plant is about 6 inches tall and roughly the diameter of a dinner plate. It takes 6 long growing seasons before a Trout Lily will produce a flower in year 7.
The "trout" namesake for the flower comes from the mottled appearance of the leaves which resemble the sides of a trout. The plants themselves make abrupt growth in winter, appearing almost overnight in some cases. Triggered by winter rains and warming soil, they begin their quest for reproduction in the latter half of February here in Texas.
Trout Lily in the Great Trinity Forest
The flowering cycle for the Trout Lily begins and ends very quickly, only a few days at most. The flowers are usually closed in the morning and open by mid-afternoon. The early bird does not get the worm if looking to photograph these colonies. Better to wait late in the day or towards sunset to see them fully open.
Trout Lily patch on Lower White Rock Creek, Great Trinity Forest, Dallas, Texas
The Trout Lily is unique in more ways that one. Pollinated by members of
the bee family the seeds are scattered not by birds or wind but
primarily by ants. Ants can carry the seeds some distance and will eat
the husk at their antpile leaving the seed behind.
Trout Lily pollination at Spring Creek Forest Preserve
The absence of nectar bearing flowers elsewhere makes the Trout Lily colonies a great place to see pollen laden bees in the winter. All bees appeared to be carrying their own body weight in Trout Lily Pollen.
At the Trout Lily Grove, White Rock Lake, Dallas, Texas
Bee collecting nectar from Trout Lily, Great Trinity Forest
The race from bulb to flower to seed completes in a ten weeks. Short by any measure. Shorter still is the actual flowering period that when given the length of time flowers are actually open, can be measure in hours. Rare and special to see.
Trout lilies take so many years to mature, so difficult for seed to spread, so hard to see in other times of the year that they have become a splintered subset of colonies here in the Dallas area. Separated by great distances in geography and existing in ecological isolation, TWU is conducting DNA sampling in the various colonies in Texas to determine their genetic structure.
Scientists note there are two main threats to the trout lily colonies here in the Dallas area. Threat of habitat loss by humans and the spread of the invasive Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata). I would add especially in the Great Trinity Forest, the invasive Chinese Privet which is capable or choking out all beneath it. Visiting a few of these colonies most seem to be clear of encroaching invasive species, the exception being White Rock Lake where privet and honeysuckle are slowly making their move.
3D photo of a bee on a Trout Lily, Spring Creek Forest Preserve (3d glasses required)
If you stick around until the sun sets................
Star trail time exposure in the Great Trinity Forest, Dallas, Texas, Winter 2013
These open prairie fields are often interrupted by timber breaks and
transition zones between open bare caliche and the floodplain timber
below. The timber here is often rich in animal life far beyond what many
expect. Were one to never visit or see it themselves they would never
know.
With short days and long nights the woods down here along the White Rock Creek drainage give one great early evening foliage free viewing of the night predators.
Under the ghostly shadows of a February moon, the owls of these bottomlands come out to hunt prey as large as themselves.
In a rare comparison, the Trout Lily and Great Horned Owl share a common bond. Being first. The Great Horned Owl is one of the first birds to nest and rear young in the new year. Paired up and mating by New Year's Day, they bring young into the world earlier than others. Here, in these photos the male is actively hunting at night more than ever before in late February.
Male Great Horned Owl Dallas, Texas
Owl Jumping Sequence
Cat vs Bird
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) dismembering domestic house cat (Felis catus) backlit by the moon
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) Dallas, TX
Great Horned Owls will eat anything that does not kill them first. It has been rather impressive to see the sheer magnitude of animals that a Great Horned Owl is capable of taking down, in this case, a house cat.
The Great Horned Owl has no known natural enemies, is rumored to be immune to rabies and a whole host of diseases that vermin are known to carry. A true beast of a bird.
Barred Owl (Strix varia) Dallas, TX
The smaller native owl to this area is the Barred Owl, seen at right. Weighing in at a pound or two, they are smaller than a Great Horned Owl. They make up for it in the vocal department with blood curdling calls that fill the woods in the evenings around sunset.
Barred Owls are viciously territorial against other Barred Owls and make their presence known wherever they are.
Calls of the Great Horned Owl and Barred Owl, a comparison
A special thanks to some special people who shared their information on trout lilies in Dallas County with me, including some of their closely guarded secret spots: Tom Frey, Landscape Architect for the City of Garland; Bill Holston, Master Naturalist; Hal and Ted Barker, preservation advocates for White Rock Lake; Jim Flood, Master Naturalist.
Bikerafting through the Trinity River Standing Wave Whitewater Upper Canoe Bypass in Dallas, Texas
Our specially crafted boats, by design, should have been somewhere north cutting a wake on the Arctic Sea Ice or carrying a field dressed moose across an Alaskan fjord. The weather was cold enough. The whitewater rapids strong. A pair of Bald Eagles, the distant noon howl of coyotes and Northern Shoveler ducks by the thousand to keep us company. An Alaskan adventure in every since of the word. I'm sure four months from now those same eagles and ducks will most likely be in the land of the Canadian midnight sun. But not this day. It was mid-February. In Texas. The only thing resembling ice was spelled out on the Katy Trail Ice House marquee where this trip started and finished.
Trinity River Standing Wave Sketch circa 1998 (City of Dallas)
Five years ago, the sights, sounds and place names in this post did not exist. They were blueprints, sketches and dreams of benchmarks yet to be realized. The foundations of the Trinity River Corridor now affords those with some creative outside-of-the-box ideas and a sense of adventure to do things really unique on a Saturday morning. Labeled boondock country by many, wrongfully mired in political debate, the true nature of the river becomes difficult to conceive as a whole.
The Trinity River Project could be seen as a blank slate yet to make a mark on the city that surrounds it. There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about how many of these projects can be woven together into a twenty mile journey up and down the Trinity River. Limited only by your own imagination there are ample opprotunities for adventure. It's fun to see these renderings come to life, whether they are a signature bridge, a bike path, nature center or whitewater park.
Evan and Will of Big City Bike Rafts
Two such pioneers literally testing the waters of the Trinity River are Will and Evan, two Dallas residents who bike raft rivers around the Southwestern United States. Together they formed Big City Bike Rafts that will rent you an Alpacka raft for a modest fee. Will mentioned that they bought the rafts after a long search for a Trinity trip last summer. They had to source the raft rentals from Jackson Hole and Salt Lake City at great expense and trouble. Bitten by the bike rafting bug and not wanting to go through the expense of mail order renting they purchased a set of rafts. Will and Evan shot me an email earlier in the winter about a float/ride through the Great Trinity Forest and I jumped at the chance.
The Equipment
At first glance one might see inflatable boats as a mediocre way to travel on water. These are no ordinary boats. Built by Alpacka Raft in Mancos, CO, they are the preferred choice for many cross country adventure travelers. Weighing in at five pounds and rolling up to dimensions the size of a loaf of bread, they allow for real flexibility in travel. Jonathan Waterman, author of the book published by National Geographic Running Dry: A Journey From Source to Sea Down the Colorado River used an Alpacka on his 1450 mile journey from the source of the Colorado River on the snowpack in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park all the way through Arizona's Grand Canyon and down to Mexico's Baja. Impressive boats with a load capacity in excess of 350 pounds and good steering manners.
Will giving a demo on assembling the raft
They assemble and inflate in about five minutes using a unique pillowcase style bellow rather an a traditional pump. Simply grab some thin air then run your closed hand down the length of the blue bellow, pictured left at the Dallas Standing Wave Portage Ramp. Rated for Class III intermediate rapids, the finesse issue of the handling lies more in getting your load balanced and center of gravity low.
The boats don't carry through with as much of a gliding coast like a canoe but make up for it with added maneuverability and less draft it seems.
The Route Downriver-- Katy Trail Ice House to the Audubon Center
There must be thousands of people who use the Katy Trail on a Saturday.
Few venture far off it. The trail itself serves as a great avenue for
reaching other parts of Dallas. The Arts District, the American Airlines
Center, the Audubon Center! Originally the MKT railroad, the old line
cuts a bee-line right to the old river channel.
Above is the Google Map Route for the trip down the river starting at the Katy Trail Icehouse and heading south across the Continental Street Viaduct. The return trip was similar and can be found further down in the post. For those that keep score with their GPS, I believe Will of Big City Bike Rafts holds the Strava KOM for the route.
Relevant benchmark mileage points:
5.5 miles from the Katy Trail Ice house to the Trinity River Standing Wave.
6.2 miles down river from Standing Wave to Loop 12. 11.8 total miles from Ice House to Loop 12
4.7 miles from loop 12 to the Audubon Center. 16.5 miles total from Ice House to Audubon Center.
On walls that once housed the Italian Restaurant Cremona are chalkboards that line the exterior. Entitled "Before I Die I Want To.." the chicken scratched scribble of strangers profess things they always plan on doing but might not get around to in this lifetime. We were set on ours.........
....and that's where our trip began on a cool, serene saturday morning. In stark contrast not twenty five minutes later we were wet and in a washing machine of Class II-Class III rated whitewater.
Getting to the river is a snap. Down Continental and across the bridge one can be on the levee perimeter road in mere minutes. Open year round to non-motorized traffic the levee road is slowly becoming known as a great training ground for off-road cyclists and running groups looking for softer surface training.
Trinity River Levee Perimeter Road with the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in the background
Currently the only paved stretch of trail is a short section of path from the east side of the I-35 bridge to the west side Santa Fe Trestle Trail on the Oak Cliff bank of the Trinity.
Assembling rafts and disassembling bikes
29er mountain bikes are quickly gaining in popularity and outselling traditional smaller wheeled 26 inch mountain bikes in many stores. For this trip we all rode 29ers which suit themselves well to North Texas trails. Disassembling the bikes and mounting the larger wheeled bikes on the rafts was a snap. The boats have straps and attachment points similar to the old clipped pedal cages of pre-SPD style pedals. By design the teeth of the clasps hold strong even when wet and the webbed material will not stretch.
The Dallas Wave -- Running the Trinity River Project's Standing Wave
Launching from the Portage Ramp and approaching the Standing Wave
The scrawny meandering wooded stream known to many as the Trinity River does not exist in the first one hundred yards downstream of the Santa Fe Trestle Trail. Here a canoe portage ramp exists serving as a bookend of where the Trinity River levee floodway ends and the untamed wild river begins. Whitewater.
Video summary of the trip, including negotiating the Standing Wave
June 2010
Construction began on the Standing Wave in the summer of 2010. Using a diversion channel the Trinity River was temporarily moved to the north allowing for foundation work in the riverbed.
August 2010
By Christmas of 2010 the Standing Wave was complete. Below is how the Standing Wave looked just prior to the Trinity River being placed back into the original channel.
December 2010
Taking the purpose built canoe bypass on the Standing Wave Project
The approach to the Standing Wave is uneventful the roar of the rapids beyond cannot be heard until reaching the lip of the feature itself. We decided to take the River Left canoe bypasses, a pair of which allow for a somewhat calmer traverse of the whitewater.
Upper Wave slackwater area of the Trinity River Standing Wave
Above is the slack water Upper Wave play area. The hydraulics of the water seem to move counterclockwise in the upper pool, gently swirling around.
Negotiating the Lower Canoe Bypass
The Lower Canoe Bypass has a considerable drop to it, much more than the Upper Bypass. Seen above, the water has a faster speed, longer drop and more run out. I recall that attempts have been made to fix this problematic spot, placing a large boulder near the lip of the bypass to curtail the flow, reworking some of the funnel. Where the Upper Bypass is a piece of cake, I think that a larger boat like a canoe might think twice about negotiating the Lower Bypass. Portaging might be a better option.
Lower Standing Wave looking upstream Corinth Street Viaduct in far background
The Lower Standing Wave is an easier piece of water to dabble in. This particular day the water was a modest 700 CFS which would be considered an average flow year round. In the summer it drops off to 450-500 CFS during dry spells.
Beyond is the scenery of which Dallas can now boast, the sort of natural areas that people just don't see on their way down I-45 to Houston.
The Journey Downriver
Approaching the Cedar Crest Bridge
The Cedar Crest Bridge is the first bridge on the float one reaches about 1/3 of a mile downstream of the Santa Fe Trestle Trail. Soon, the Corps of Engineers will radically alter the woods here, removing most of the trees to build wetland cells. It has already begun to some extent with the removal of a forested area on the southwest side of the bridge. Hope they know what they are doing!
MKT Trestle circa 1905
Hey, it's the Katy again. The next bridge up is rumored to be one of the oldest railroad bridges still in use that spans the Trinity, the MKT railroad bridge. Hidden from any street view one can only see it from the river. Interesting old bridge, the random train horns from locomotives crossing here keep South Dallas residents up at night.
Some of the more detailed history and backstory of this stretch of river can be found in a previous post from November on a canoe trip with a historian, wildlife expert, two master naturalists and a pig blood drone pilot Exploring the Trinity By Canoe.
Beyond the railroad trestle, the river exhibits a cross section of the sediments that
underlie the Blackland Prairie plains, an apron of gravel debris laid
down anciently by immense rivers coursing out of the mountain west when those peaks were young and high. Behind the old Procter and Gamble Plant the gravels here point to a much older time.
Miller's Ferry
Historic Miller's Ferry Site
William B. Miller
Miller's Ferry has been used for centuries by man as a way station on the Trinity River. This trip we used it to stretch our legs as the halfway point of our float. Nestled between the elevated I-45 and Highway 310 bridges it serves a great rest stop. Despite the heavy rains of the previous week, the ground was slippery but firm.
The namesake of the crossing is William B. Miller an early Dallas pioneer who made a lasting mark on much of Dallas as a whole. An enterprising businessman on the south bank of the Trinity, he needed a ferry crossing to reach Dallas. In turn, Dallas needed a reliable ferry crossing to reach Hutchins, Corsicana and points south. Miller's Ferry road still exists today in southern Dallas County and served as the piggybacked route for the first railroad, first highway and first interstate into Dallas.
The debris and scree today at Miller's Ferry look like a standard mess of old rusted construction but in reality are the remains of bridges and crossings past. In the photo above, the concrete casements, iron shrouded piling and cable pieces are legacies of old times gone by. The first ferry was hand pulled, similar to the one seen inset left. During low water, the cottonwood built ferry sat in the mud and served as a low bridge. During high water the bridge was pulled via rope and braided cables. It's believed that the "cut" in the bank(where we parked our boats in the photo) at Miller's Ferry, shown as a historical feature most likely was part of that old site.
Millermore Mansion in Old City Park
Miller's antebellum style mansion, Millermore was moved to Old City Park near Downtown Dallas where it stands today. There is much more history to the ferry site which can be found in more detail in a previous post 3000 years of history at Miller's Ferry .
Through Rochester Park and up White Rock Creek
Navigating the mouth of White Rock Creek, looking upstream
Remote canoeists camp on White Rock Creek
A distant howling chorus of coyotes greeted us as we floated past the Buckeye Grove in Rochester Park now known as William Blair Park. Eerily calling a noon howl from afar the true wilderness of the river made it's mark. Below the Buckeye Grove sits the mouth of White Rock Creek which is usually hard to travel due to snags. This day the flow and level of the creek was higher allowing for further travel upstream.
The sheltered creek mouth here makes for an excellent stop and makes for an excellent overnight canoe camp spot on the river, high and away from the bank.
Downstream to the east of the river we floated past what will soon become the Trinity Forest Golf Course. The tall pecans, walnuts and oaks that line the banks here will most likely hide the course from the river. Once an old gravel mining area, this parcel of land yields some of the finest fossilized animals in the United States. The old gravels mentioned earlier in this post served as a vast sandy marsh when mammoths roamed Dallas. The new Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas features a mammoth pulled from this very spot, soon to be a golf course.
Take Out at Loop 12
We took out at the Loop 12 Boat Ramp where the Trinity River Trailhead begins and travels through Joppa Preserve on a 4 mile paved path that loops around to the Trinity River Audubon Center. From here it's all bikes. Dismantling and packing boats and assembling bikes on a jaunt down the river to the Audubon Center.
Trinity River Trail Bike Path Bridge Over The Trinity River
The multi-million dollar bridge here has been completed for at least a year. Final completion of the trail was held up due to a Water Utilities project of riverbank stabilization. The trail skirts the Audubon property with a new solar powered trailhead near the Audubon Center entrance.
Trinity Trailhead on the Audubon Center entrance way
This lot as well as the Audubon Center itself will serve as a great jumping off point to exploring the Great Trinity Forest in the future. I think there are still some wrinkles to be ironed out in regards to using this particular trailhead when the Audubon Center is not open. I had a conversation with Don Burns, the Trinity River Project Manager last week who explained that new interior gates were in place for the Audubon Center drive to accommodate trail users.
Ben Jones mentioned that this day in particular was a peak day for the annual hawk migration and it clicked with us since we had seen so many hawks while on the river. The final count of hawks for our party was in the ballpark of two dozen hawks and two Bald Eagles, one mature adult and one juvenile.
Red-Tailed Hawk near Miller's Ferry on the Trinity River
The hawks we saw that day were moving through just like we were. On the way to somewhere else. Most had rather inquisitive eyes and allowed us to get quite close and in many cases just stayed on perch rather than take flight.
Return Route
Google Map Route Return Route Above is the return route used in the trip. Utilizing the Trinity River Trail from the Audubon Center to Loop 12. The next section follows the crude doubletrack of the Wetland Cells abutting the Freedman's community of Joppa to Highway 310 at Miller's Ferry. Crossing the bridge and taking South Lamar through the Bon-Ton, Cedars and eventually Downtown Dallas back to the Katy Trail.
14 miles, one way. If someone wished to ride mountain bikes, a cyclocross bike or even a beach cruiser from Uptown or Downtown to the Audubon Center this is the very best route to take. We took this route back to make it as clear and concise as possible for anyone else wishing to replicate the route. Naturally, there are many other side routes, detours and trails one can take off this route. I think one will find that the generosity, friendliness, in its width and scope among the people there is unique to Dallas. It is good-people country.
Wetland Cells
Evan riding the Wetland Cells approaching Highway 310/Lamar
Riding back was quite simple. Up the bike path towards Loop 12, then across Loop 12 to the Wetland Cells. Here we followed a simple set of doubletrack dirt road that loosely follows the chain of wetland cells up towards I-45. One can ride as far as I-45 at Overton. Since we were on bikes, we vacated the river at 310@Overton. Here the highway bridge affords a wide shoulder and low vehicle traffic. Often crossed on foot, bike and horse by area residents, it's a good bridge to cross for our purposes.
Lamar Street under the Dallas Convention Center
Up South Lamar and only minutes later we are riding into Downtown Dallas. On the ride back, people become part of the landscape. The liquor
store lot Day Drinkers along South Lamar. The vagabonds pushing shopping
carts full of things others have built, destroyed or thrown away. The
newly minted parolees stepping out of the Greyhound Bus Station. The tourists of the West End wearing sweatshirts of distant
colleges unknown in these parts. Ten minutes is all it takes on Lamar to
go from the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich. An
interesting slice of humanity.
Lamar has become newly marked in late 2012 and early 2013 with shared bike lane symbols from the Convention Center to the Katy Trail. We used the marked lanes on our ride past John Neely Bryan's cabin site in the distance and through Victory Park back to the Katy Trail. Great adventure. One you can take too.
Seems that much of this kind of thing is new to Dallas and still lacks an anchor point for exploring down the river. The next few months are the very best time to visit the Great Trinity Forest.
New projects like Dallas County's Gateway Park seen below at Dowdy Ferry and I-20 will open up river access to the far reaches of Dallas this spring. The large fishing piers, horse trailer parking and trails will open up a large part of the Great Trinity Forest that few have ever seen. Gateway Park will connect with the Trinity Trail near Audubon Center within the next year.
For those seeking high adventure, rolling your own way and no hand holding, the Great Trinity Forest and the Trinity River itself serve as a great venue to really push your limits. It continues to amaze me that more people do not get down here and explore. On this fine Saturday, other than the sole fisherman who drowns worms at the wastewater treatment plant outlet and a guy with a stuck 4x4 in the Wetland Cells, we saw ZERO people. Amazing.
Dallas County Gateway Park at Dowdy Ferry and I-20
A special thanks once again to Will and Evan. Best of luck on their new venture and new adventures exploring rivers abroad!
