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New River Field Guide

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The last time I wrote about the Mid County Park area -- home of the Frog Pond -- I did little but complain, mostly about the pointless pedestrian footbridge.

But since then, I've been back several times to make use of the park itself.

Could this be the best park in the New River Valley?

Maybe so.

See, they've got a nice playground and a great walking trail.

And when you've got a playground-loving toddler and a nature-loving father, that combination is worth driving out of your way.

But, since the Mid County park is located just minutes from beautiful downtown NRV, i.e. the mall area, you don't have to drive out of your way.

So far, I've spent a lot more time at the playground than on the trail, because my son just loves it.

Playgrounds are becoming sadly homogenized.

(When I was a kid, one of the playgrounds featured something akin to a giant hamster wheel, while another had a decommissioned military jet re-equipped as a sliding board.)

But, aside from Blacksburg's Hand-in-Hand playground, today's playgrounds all seem to be built by the same company and feature the same basic stuff in slightly different arrangements.

That said, the one at Mid County Park has a particularly nice arrangement. A barrier separates the little kid zone from the big kid zone. This is a feature all playgrounds need, but most don't have.

Until my son learns to negotiate the barrier, he can't climb up to the big sliding boards and such.

In the meantime, he's very happy with the wee-sized stuff, which includes a fire engine steering wheel.

Another nice feature here is the sand. Every playground seems to have gone to mulch, but this one has sand, which makes the whole place like a giant sandbox.

For big kids, there's also a zipline-type gadget and a picnic shelter, where I recently witnessed some youngsters taking running leaps from one picnic table to another and having a big old time.

(You can build the kids a safe playground, but they'll still find a way to risk their necks.)

The hiking trail, which begins near the picnic shelter, leads you down into a nice wooded area.

Despite several efforts, my son and I have not yet been able to fully explore the trail, but we've gotten as far as a ravine which was surprisingly beautiful in its fall colors.

Lastly, I must mention what is possibly my son's favorite feature at the park -- a large sun mural painted on the back of one of the buildings near the basketball courts. Very friendly.

Bottom line: It may be just across the U.S. 460 Bypass from the busy, busy mall area and it may be right next to the dump, but Mid County Park is a nice place to wile away a sunny day.