#indianapolisparks

[edmartinauto]

7 Great Parks and Hikes Near Carmel, IN

[52hikeswithcooper]

Hike #6- Southwestway Park

February 3, 2018

Nate and I had to make our way to Indianapolis to get our iPhone batteries replaced (thanks Apple...), so we made a pitstop on the way at Southwestway Park. It’s been on our list for some time, mostly because Nate wants to mountain bike there and I love a chance to be near the White River. 

One of the things we find most interesting about Southwestway Park is the way the Indianapolis Parks Department has maximized community usage of this space. There are little league fields for soccer and baseball/softball, multi-use trails for mountain bikes, hikers, runners, and even horseback riders! There are efforts to increase the natural habitat in the area and remove invasive species.

While the current season does not lend itself to beautiful fields of flowers and waving grasses, hopefully you can see the restoration in the foreground and parking way off in the background, with tall lights for evening sporting events to the right. It took a few minutes of walking to get through the fields and into the wooded area.

We passed this gnarly tree on our path into the woods, a taste of the interesting, fairytale-like trees we would encounter throughout the hike. 

The river is in sight!

I love getting to see the river in all seasons. Winter seems to be uniquely beautiful, in my opinion, thanks to the limited colors and ice pattern formations. I especially love the ways the branches are so bare, are such stark contrast to sky.

This trio of trees, perched precariously on the river’s edge, drew my eye to their interlocked roots, then their fallen comrades to the left and right. If you look closely, you’ll see the white of a Jim Beam bottle, left by some party-hard park-goer, in the tree to the left.

This is that fallen comrade to the right of the trio above. Note the icicles strewn like decorations. Winter really has its beauty! And then you notice the piece of trash strangling the branches in a fallen tree.... Our previous hikes have been mostly free of litter. We’ve taken that for granted and are planning to bring plastic bags for litter collection on every hike going forward. Unfortunately, we encountered more as our hike continued. And this is where both of our phones suddenly died, we’re thinking because of the cold. We hiked a bit more and tried to turn our phones back on, to limited success. My phone came back to life but Nate’s did not. I guess it’s good we were getting our batteries replaced!

And then we saw this poop! This coyote had quite the meal to deposit such a load, and on the path even! 

Like I mentioned before, the gnarly trees felt such like a fairytale land that when we passed under this we almost expected a witch or her henchmen to hop onto the trail. 

And we almost thought there would be a troll hopping out from this mushroom-spotted log! 

Straight out of a fairytale, this locust tree had spikes lining its trunk. Quite the defense mechanism.

And just like that we completed our ~2.5 mile loop (we seemed to have gotten a little confused and hopped onto the mountain biking trail at one point...). This park, conveniently, houses recycling receptacles for neighbors who may not otherwise have access to recycling services. I think it’s such a great use of community space!

We’re looking forward to exploring Southwestway Park again sometime, definitely taking Nate’s mountain bike with us. Next time you’re on your way up to Indianapolis or down to Bloomington, take the time to hike for a bit. You’ll be happy you did!