Sunday, September 03, 2006
Wildwood sure doesn't have an inner-city feel
New River Field Guide
Recent columns
- The Field Guide has led readers on five years of adventures
- New River Deli in Pembroke is still down-home
- Sal's of Radford fame comes to Blacksburg
- Bridge makes a big difference in Heritage Park
Let me try to explain why I like Radford's Wildwood Park so much.
See, there are different kinds of parks. Around here, most of them are of the ballfield, jungle gym and picnic pavilion type. These are very necessary types of parks, of course, but they can get a little dull.
Then there's another kind of park. The park where you can take a stroll, cross a few bridges, walk through a shady grove of trees and almost forget you're in the middle of the city. Yet, they are stroller-, toddler-, wheelchair- and bike-accessible.
Wildwood Park is the best example of this in the area, if not the region.
Radford's wonderful hike and bike trail runs right through the center of it, along a stream known as Connelly's Run. Another paved path and numerous hiking trails branch off from it.
Best of all, the land these trails run through is gorgeous -- meadow, marsh, beautiful forest with tumbling streams.
Just a few feet inside the Main Street entrance, you'll see cattails growing. An immediate left will take you up the aptly named grand staircase -- a long series of wooden stairs that take you up into the forest along one of the aforementioned tumbling streams. If not for the incessant beeping of a construction vehicle in the distance, it would have been easy to imagine I was in the national forest.
By the time I made it to one of the bridges across Connelly's Run, the beeping had stopped and birds and bugs were making a much nicer sound. Yes, it was getting hard to believe I was in the middle of Radford.
One of the most amazing things was the lack of vandalism and litter. I saw a little bit of each, but you can find much worse way out in the mountains.
Here, within a can's throw of the high school, things were nice and clean. Impressive.
Most of the park was very kid-friendly. There were big, chunky benches and well-built bridges with guardrails. However, there are some steep drops along the upper path, so parents will need to keep a close eye on toddlers.
Bottom line: Wildwood Park really feels like a wild wood, unspoiled by its urban surroundings, but fixed up enough to make biking, walking or stroller-pushing easy and inviting.
