EP Tom Sawyer Park, East End, Louisville

     If there is one lesson I have learned about wild spots in the Louisville area, it is that you can never judge a park by it's location on the map. Some of the most beautiful and natural spaces can be found nestled into some of the most unpredictable environments. EP Tom Sawyer Park is the perfect example. It's unpredictably sandwiched between McMansion developments and strip malls - and on the map - looks to be dominated by a pool complex, tennis courts, soccer fields and a fancy dog park complete with wooden gazebos. But it's so much more than that!

      We parked by the pool complex and followed the "fitness trail" up to the trailhead for the Goose Creek Trail. It was an unusually warm, late, winter afternoon and we were a little anxious about the possibility of getting rained on. The trail appeared to be pretty boring so I chugged ahead, oblivious to the scrubby, vine-choked field I was walking through. We had checked the trail map before taking off so I expected to follow a quick circle the soccer fields and get back into the car. To my surprise, we came to a fork in the trail -  and even though, it wasn't on the map - we took it. Afterall, on the map, this park looks like a normal, boring, suburban "jog spot." That fork led to another fork and another fork and before we knew it, we discovered a beautiful spring that led into Goose Creek.


    Considering it borders one of the heaviest travelled roads in the city, Goose Creek appears to be doing well in the park. It's one of those quintessentially "Kentucky" streams, complete with babbling, waterfalls and clear, open channels.  I didn't see a lot of trash and I was happy to spy a pair of Mallards as well as many deer prints. Sadly, I also found a large deer carcass -- no doubt hit by a car-- and a dead red tailed hawk. As wild as any of these spots seem, there are always the reminders that you are still in the city.

 
For all the glory of the dog park, pool and tennis courts, the trails in this park are poorly identified. The trails that intersect and cross Goose Creek are surprisingly erratic. The complete lack of signage make it easy to get disoriented. Luckily, getting lost in this park seems to come with it's own payback. Get "lost" and you are more likely to stumble across the hidden ruins of the Central State Insane Asylum, which are equally historic, beautiful and creepy.


 


I happened across these ruins haphazardly. Nothing in the signs warned me that I was going to encounter such beauty!

Well, actually, there was a sign that mentioned it. We happened across it as we were leaving the park. It was by the soccer fields.

Swamp Park, River Road area, Louisville

Yes, this is what a swamp looks like in Kentucky

Vines so thick they strangle the sun

Caperton Swamp, known by locals as the "Swamp Park" is hidden along River Road, a view so scenic that you are sure to miss it's tiny parking lot. Perhaps this is why it's not frequented much - but it's more likely that the name "Swamp Park" doesn't sound very appealing. The trail here is short. A quick loop around the swamp ends disappointedly at an overpass before returning to the trail head. This, however, isn't one of those places that you go to for physical exertion. This is a literal fairy tale kingdom of wildlife worth savoring with every step. The swamp isn't really a swamp in the sense that most people consider. It's more of a marsh or wetland area. It's shallow waters are so clear that they seem to be boiling with tadpoles and larvae in late spring. It's not unusual to spy a few cranes mingling with various species of duck and I've delighted in seeing nesting boxes overflowing with their contents.  I usually initially forgo the loop trail around the swamp in lieu of exploring the inter-connected matrix of tiny deer "trails" bordering the East side of the park. Here, I explore trees so covered in vines they seem like tee-pees and find sunny islands of flattened grass where deer have bedded down. In the winter and spring months, you will occasionally stumble across the ruins of a homestead. Usually so embedded in weeds they are indiscernible, in these months, toppled brick pillars, decomposing beer cans and glass bottles are exposed like bleaching bones. Rummaging among the ruins, I once found a child's toy. The plastic shark existed in a strange juxtaposition between an imaginary sea and the ground beneath my feet. For a moment, it seemed as though it belonged there and I was the foreigner disturbing it's rest. It's existence, in such a quintessentially fantastic location, seemed natural.

Trail: Short and quick loop.
Time: Short enough for a lunch break.
Cool Stuff: There are actually two distinct swamp areas although the area on the East end of the park may be on private property.

Love. Me. Knot.

Iroquois Park, South End, Louisville

The summit on a winter's evening around sunset. 

A true rarity, this picnic shelter has a working fireplace! 

What is this? A trap?

 Iroquois Park is really just a hill in the center of the South end of Louisville. Although it has some unusual amenities including Iroquois Park Amphitheater and a frisbee golf course, the real attraction is the hill---and what a hill it is! It's possible, mostly in the summer months, to drive up to the crest along a switchback, paved road but this road is usually closed most of the year. Of course, driving up a hill doesn't really satisfy my wanderlust, so I don't mind the lack of accessibility. The trails are largely ignored by most of the park regulars but expect to encounter the usual mix of teenage stoners, wandering homeless and other assorted riff-raff that haunt an urban park. Aside from a few deer, these "wild creatures" will be more startled of you than you are of them. Trekking off the trail is ill-advised. The landscape is clogged with more vines and briers than Rapunzel's tower and the swift run-off of rain on the hill makes the stream beds so muddy they feel like quicksand under your boots. Although there are portions of the trail that enable you to suspend your disbelief that you are in a city, the metropolis is inescapable. Even at the summit, the dull roar of Taylor Boulevard can be heard all around you and the evidence of human usage, including errant, used condoms and glass bottles filled with unidentifiable liquids, is hard to ignore. Aside from this, the summit of the hill is truly spectacular. Louisville encircles your vision in every direction. The view is largely unobstructed, even in the summer months when the trees are full of leaves. Sadly, the overlook area, a beautiful, concrete cascade of semi-circles and rock walls, has been heavily damaged by vandalism. During my last trip, I was stunned to find that one of the rock walls had been kicked through and that a very large bronze commemorative plaque was missing. In awe, I wondered what strength, combined with what horrendous life circumstances, could result in so much damage.

Damage to the summit walls is visible here, on bottom left corner

Trails: Take your choice of paved roadways or sloppy inclines.

Time: Pretty short. A longer hike is possible if you loop around the hill.

Cool stuff: See the cobblestone picnic shelter with a fireplace in it! The stonework makes you feel like you are stopping to rest in a hobbit hole!