another week, another hike: bell's bend park

we truly are trying to keep up the routine of taking one hike per week. this week, we decided to go on sunday rather than monday because the forecast for the week includes heat advisories with tempertures and humidity levels extremely high and dangerous for outdoor activities.

we took a week off from the garden (demo garden work sessions are on sundays) and packed some water bottles into a cooler and headed over to bells bend. this is one of the newest parks in the metro park system. it was donated to the city by the beaman family and it is former farm land that is being allowed to return to its natural state. unfortunately, for us anyway, that meant there would be little if any shade on the walk. another caution to fellow hikers, this is not a walk for little kids, anyone with health issues or those with a complete lack of direction-there are absolutely no markers of any kind on the trails! you must download the map from the metro parks website and bring it with you-the copies available at the trail head are very poor quality and all one shade of grey making it difficult to see the different paths clearly. as for the trail condition, it is very good-mostly level with few if any inclines/declines but it is not paved and could be difficult for pushing strollers so leave the kids home and use this time to meditate. the other point, it is on the northwest outskirts of the city which made it a longer drive for us-22 miles each way.

we parked at the trail head which is located in a separate entrance from the beaman nature center. there is not a lot of parking available and that suggests to us that not many people come here. our car was the only one in the lot when we arrived and when we left. one interesting note, there are a group of students from UT and Uof arizona on an archealogical dig here and they have a campsite near the trailhead. as we wandered up the trail, this was the first view, looking towards the river.

what the trail looks like, it is grassy in some parts and gravel in others.

bikes are not allowed and skates cannot navigate here so it is best left to walkers and runners.

milkweed pods on the trail

yellow wild flowers

ironweed in full bloom, we saw lots of it along the trails

part of the trail runs alongside the cumberland river

lots of butterflies to watch. buckeye butterly having a drink

the view, similar from the start to the end

almost back to the start, the campground is located by the barn in this picture

native passion flowers

and their fruits

the last part of the trail as we head back out to the car. it was way too hot for this trail today! we may come back but definitely not in the summer unless it is cloudy and cool.

frost weed, butterflies love it and we saw many sipping nectar on them. no luck getting a good photo-they are just too quick!

elderberries at the nature center

on our way out, we drove to the nature center to see if it was open and to find a schedule of events. they have very limited hours, tuesday, thursday and saturday and not too many events. they do have a nice rest room though!

another monday, another hike in the city

we are trying to make the monday night hike a regular event and this past monday, we went out to warner parks to hike on the warner woods trail, a 2.5 mile loop through percy warner park.

the trail system in the two parks is extensive. it goes from paved trails to bridle paths and primitive trails. there are also roads accessible by car allowing those unable to walk to see the sights and reach overlooks and picnic areas. the best part, we didn't have to leave the city limits to do this. we traveled 11.75 miles over to the west side of town from our house for a total of 23.5 miles round trip. a little farther than last weeks trip but as i said earlier, still within the city limits.

we didn't waste any time, we studied the map located in the deep well trailhead and we chose the warner woods trail. with water bottles in hand, we set off to get some much needed exercise and to explore a part of the park we had never been in before. we had been out here to this area of the park once for a guided wild flower walk and knew we would come back to explore some more. the start of the trail, the roots cut the path like a staircase and made descending the steep incline easy.

one of the many roads that go through the park. people also run and ride bikes on the paved roads.

it was a hot afternoon, at least 92 and humid. it was a little cooler in the park but not enough to prevent sweating.

just one of the many interesting trees we saw along the way

we also saw huge trees. darry stood in front of this one for scale but it still doesn't look as big as it could. we saw a few that were larger too.

in the center of this photo-twin fawns, mom was off to the side watching us to make sure we didn't get too close to her babies.

the only flower blooming in the park. there were a few of these around, but not many. summer is a time when the flowers tend to shut down and there aren't many blooms to see.

we encountered several of these benches on the trail. it must have been quite a job to get them out on the trails.

wild grape vines are all over

more wild grapes

and still some more

another randomly placed bench on the trail.

a most intriguing root system.

good thing we don't have bears around here!

the beginning of the incline out of buggy bottoms

darry spotted these mushrooms on an old persimmon tree.

they are shelf mushrooms and most likely inedible.

they have also released their spores-that whitish dust around them are the spores.

can you believe this is within the city limits?

for quite some time now, we have been talking about getting out and seeing more of tennessee. we have lived here for 15 years and it is surprising just how little we have explored around us. we have been all around warner park on the trails by ourselves and as part of guided walks but there is so much more to see. today we took a trip over to shelby bottoms nature center so that we could walk the trails on the greenway.

first thing you need to know, we didn't go very far-just under 10 miles from the house, right across the river from down town nashville.

the view of the downtown area from the shelby avenue bridge

we parked by the nature center so that we could pick up the trail and start our adventure. if you look closely at the roof, it looks like it is covered with weeds. actually, this building has a green roof and those plants were put there intentionally to prevent runoff.

button bush with a butterfly

natural wetlands

blackberries

virginia creeper

very interesting

the walkway, many parts were shaded by trees

what we crossed over on that walkway

passion flowers

when walking with darry, you are bound to find mushrooms. these are wood ears. don't they look lovely with all of that poison ivy?

a big conch mushroom on the biggest tree i have seen in a while

we were on a little look out taking in the view of the river when darry spotted a nest with eggs below us.

the view across the river

and up the river

the walk back to the nature center

we took a detour on the cotton wood trail, it is a primitive trail-no asphalt, just dirt. we saw some native phlox.

and lots more mushrooms

the threat of rain had us heading back to the car

interesting

and the view of down town as we headed back home after our short adventure.