Springfield Parks, Greenways, and Outdoor Spaces

4/30/16

Our parks exploration today ended up being a little interesting. We took our 6 year-old granddaughter to Silver Dollar City and decided to stop at Rutledge-Wilson Farm Park on our way home. We pulled in at 4:52 pm just to see that the gates closed at 5:00. She was disappointed but we told her we would go to another park that was open. Overhill Park was a nearby park we had not visited before and the description stated  that it had a playground so we headed to it. It only had a swing set and basketball goals that looked a little worse-for-wear and there was trash scattered around. We got out of the car and could hear repetitive gunshots. It sounded like target practice but decided not to stick around. Next was Westgate Park, we pulled up to it, and it was nothing but an empty lot, no playground. She said "Why would they not have a playground?!!" So we decided to try one more, and if that one was a dud, we would just go to a park we knew. Young-Lily Park was a success!! It was a beautiful park with 4 very nice play structures!!!!

#88. Overhill Park 1100 S. Overhill Rd.
This one acre park in west central Springfield is in a neighborhood and there is not much here. There is one swing set, a basketball court and a baseball field. See today's initial paragraph for the gunshot comments. We just spent a few minutes here.

#89. Westgate Park 3550 W. State St.
This park is in west central Springfield and has no amenities. The park board website lists it as 3 acres but I don't think the mowed area is that large. I just walked to the edge of the mowed area to look around.

#90. Young/Lilley Park 300 Eldon
This 2 acre park is near the intersection of Chestnut Expy. and West Bypass. There are two separate playground areas and a walking trail around this park. Our granddaughter had fun on the four slide/play structures and we walked around the park on the trail. We spent about 30 minutes and walked just under a mile.

We visited three new to us parks today and finished up with a nice park experience after a slow start. We also stopped back by Cooper Park (see 4/29) and walked the rest of the trail and our granddaughter played on the playground. We have just 12 park facilities to visit.