Springfield Parks, Greenways, and Outdoor Spaces

4/24/16

We had Sunday School bike ride/picnic at Nathanael Greene Park this evening so we went a little early to walk around Close Memorial Park and Drummond Lake. After the picnic, we went to two nearby park facilities.

#67. Botanical Center 2400 S. Scenic Ave.
The Botanical Center is located in Close Memorial Park, adjoining Nathanael Greene Park and features a gift shop, library, classroom, and meeting rooms. We have been here several times before and walked in briefly today on our way to the gardens.

#68. Close Memorial Park 2400 S. Scenic Ave
This park has many different gardens, the Dr. Bill Roston Native Butterfly House, Lake Drummond, playgrounds and additional play pods along the trail around the lake, the Lions Club History Walk and access to the South Creek Greenway Trail. We have been here several times. We walked through many of the gardens and all around the lake. The Butterfly House doesn't open until the second weekend in May but we could see blooming plants and one butterfly flying around. There were lots of people out this afternoon. Included our walk through the Gray Campbell Farmstead and Nathanael Greene Park, we spent 1 3/4 hours and walked 2 1/2 miles.

#69. Gray Campbell Farmstead 2400 S. Scenic Ave.
This is located in Nathanael Greene Park and contains the oldest house in Springfield from 1856. The historic Liberty School from north of Springfield has been relocated here and there is also a log kitchen, a barn, a granary, a cemetery and there are frequently history demonstrations here. We have been here before but this is the first time we visited Liberty School. 

#70. Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden 2100 S. Scenic Ave.
This 7.5 acre garden is the oldest attraction at the botanical gardens and features a koi lake, bridges, meditation garden, a tea house, and traditional Japanese garden landscaping. There is a separate (small) fee to enter the Stroll Garden and we didn't go inside today due to time constraints, just walked around outside and looked in but we have been here several times before.

#71. Nathanael Greene Park 2400 S. Scenic Ave.
This 113 acre park contains all the facilities previously mentioned in today's post plus additional gardens, playgrounds, two picnic pavilions and many picnic tables and grills. South Creek runs along the park and this is one of the best park facilities in Springfield.


#14(continued) South Creek Linear Park/South Creek Greenway Trail
We have been on this trail many times, frequently starting here from Nathanael Greene Park and walked the section from McDaniel Park to Campbell Ave. on 3/22/16. Tonight we rode bikes all the way to the west end of the trail then east back to the overpass over Kansas Ave. There are a couple signs just west of Kansas Expy. describing this as part of the Trail of Tears. We rode about 1 1/4 hour and traveled almost 8 miles.

#72. Horton Smith Golf Course 2409 S. Scenic Ave.
This 18 hole golf course was built in 1962 and  has a driving range and a pro shop. We have never been here before since we don't golf. We walked down to the pro shop and looked out over the course. There were several golfers on the course.

#73.  Edna Norris Park 2056 S. Moore Ave.
We didn't know this park was here and it was extremely hard to locate. We put the address in my phone and it took us to a location on Moore Ave. south of Horton Smith Golf Course but the park is actually north of the golf course. We finally found it on Google maps but there is no access from Moore Ave. Google indicated it was on S. Hilton Ave and that was were we finally found it. Hilton Ave. dead ends at the park and there is no sign and only street parking. It is 2 acres and has a 0.15 track and one tiny slide structure. We spent 5 minutes walking around the track. There was no one else here.


We visited 7 facilities tonight leaving just 29 left to visit. Including the picnic, we spent about 5 hours, visiting two places that were new to us.