Springfield Parks, Greenways, and Outdoor Spaces

4/3/16

We took our daughter and her dalmatian out on this great afternoon to explore two parks and two trails on the north and west sides of Springfield but only two of them are on the list of 102 Springfield-Greene County Park facilities. All four were new to us.

#41. Ritter Springs Park 3683 W. Farm Rd. 92
This large, 246 acre park is north of Springfield off Highway 13. We knew this park was here and always planned to visit but never made it out here before today. It was just beautiful today and there were many other people here. One description I read online called this "Springfield's hidden jewel" and that is an accurate description. There is a playground, archery range, a pavilion, trails, and a lake. The lake was the best feature. We sat at a table by the lake and walked out on a little dock. We saw one small cave but did not go in because there was a sign warning not to enter because of risk of endangering the bats. The Little Sac River and Spring Branch Creek run along the edge of this park. The South Dry Sac trail links this park with the Sac River Mountain Bike Park and the David C. Murray Park/Trailhead. We walked around the park and on the South Dry Sac Trail. We walked 3 miles and spent just under 2 hours here.

#42. South Dry Sac Linear Park/South Dry Sac Greenway  Ritter Springs Park/Truman School
According to the Ozark Greenways website, this trail is in three segments with plans, of course, to eventually connect. I had not heard of this trail and thought this was our first time to walk on it, but I saw on the map that there is a 1/4 mile segment of this trail at Valley Water Mill Park  and we did walk down to the river on this trail when we were there on 3/26. This segment is completely paved. This afternoon we started at Ritter Springs and walked east almost to Highway 13 then back and then drove over to David C. Murray Park to the east trailhead of this segment and walked out and back west to where we stopped earlier.

David C. Murray Park 4800 N. Farm Rd. 141
This new park is not on the list of 102 Springfield-Greene County Parks facilities that I printed from the website but is shown on the map and listed as a future park site on the facilities side of the map on the website. Its address is given on the facilities list in the current(Jan-April 2016) Park Bench publication. It is primarily the east trailhead for the Dry Sac River trail. There is a large cleared area and dozens of small trees have been planted here. There is only a small sign at the entrance to the parking lot identifying this park and trailhead. We walked 9/10 miles in 30 minutes.

Trail of Tears  Golden Ave. and Republic Rd.
This was the first time we had been on this natural trail in west Springfield. This is the description on the Ozarks Greenways website: The National Historic Trail of Tears route runs through Springfield and a portion of the route near Republic Road and Golden Avenue has been preserved with a greenway trail. This trail section is currently under development and planned to extend north, including a future trailhead parking area. There is no parking here, we parked on Riverside St. and walked across Golden Ave to the trailhead. There is a plaque at the trailhead with the Trail of Tears history in Springfield. We spent about 15 minutes and walked about 1/2 mile and there was not anyone else around.

We spent  a little under five hours and visited all places that were new to us. I was able to bring my "To Visit" list down to 60 and explored the Trail of Tears.