city parks

Mill Race Park in Columbus Indiana

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Mill Race Park is situated where the Flat Rock and the Driftwood rivers join together on the west side of Columbus. The 35 acre park is an extremely popular place to walk, picnic, attend concerts, climb the tall observation tower or just simply enjoy a bit of Nature.

The bottom of the bridge is in the background

Duck enjoying the reflecting pond

 

 

 

 

 

Among the attractions at the park are a large reflecting pond ringed by sidewalks and benches. One side of the pond features the historic covered bridge. Columbus is known for its public art displays, and several are located in the park. One recent addition to the park landscape is a set of tall, wooden poles topped with bat nesting boxes. The poles are set in rock cairns for shelter of amphibians and reptiles.

Each provides shelter for bats, birds, amphibians and reptiles

The lovely pond, suitable for leisurely walks or resting

The brick “monument” with bronze info plaque (yes, that’s us)

The brick “monument” complete with an arch and flanked by a bronze information plaque is a highly visible structure. The plaque describes the mill race that ran through acreage. It also listed the many industries along the old mill race, including mills and brickyards. The Mill Race Park in Columbus is a delightful place. It is worth your visit.

 

Disc golf in the park

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A new Disc Golf course has been constructed in a city park providing another means of recreation. This sport is well organized, and is served by a national organization, the Professional Disc Golf Association.

This is a “T” where you start each “hole”

Details of this, the 1st station

Here is the target basket, one for each “hole”

Disc Golf has roughly the same type of rules as regular golf. The PDGA is quite a large and vibrant organization. For the serious disc golfer, tournaments are available coast to coast. The weekend sportsperson can just have a ball (or disc) throwing these frisbee like discs across the park trying to land in one of those chain baskets. Try your luck sometime, you might find a new sport you like.

 

A neat feature at a park

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This afternoon Sher and our son and I went on a ‘hunt’ for a Geocache at a nearby park. We had looked it up last night on a map, and there it was! So off we went.

Explanation of how the swale works

This Geocache was not one of those hidden boxes or log books. This one was a feature at the park. We went in search of a Water Quality Bio-Swale. Yes, a feature that is designed to collect pollutants from rain fall runoff.

That’s the swale in the background

It actually looked like an ordinary swale for rain runoff. This one had a more complex design than you normally expect. There was a thick layer of sandy soil in the low part of the swale which filtered any pollutants. A layer of gravel at the bottom surrounded a  perforated drain pipe in which the storm water runs off to a nearby river.

The story of Indiana’s state tree

The swale banks were planted with trees native to Indiana. One of the park volunteers was mapping the location and species of each tree while we were on site. He informed us that there will be individual ID signs on each tree and a brochure with detailed info coming soon.

Family life on the river bank

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Young goslings under watchful eyes

It was a pretty day so we went on a drive to a local park. This park has a river running through it and is home to lots of waterfowl. We were treated to an idyllic scene of an adult goose with 3 very young goslings poking around on the river bank. White ducks and Mallards were in the background enjoying the day.

COVID-19 empty park

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Not a soul in sight

Sher and I took a drive the other day as the weather was nice even though a tad bit on the cool side. As our son hadn’t been out for a while either, he graciously drove.

We started our jaunt  driving around town, and we immediately noticed that there was a fair amount of traffic out on the streets. No pedestrians in sight, with the exception of a fellow with a carry-out order from a local restaurant.

No children laughing and romping around today

Then it was off to a local city park. The attached photos are the result. The nice shiny new playground equipment had been closed with caution tape. The normally busy park was empty. We did enjoy getting out for a while, maintaining social distance. Heck, we stayed in the car! We do not know how the upcoming “open the country back up” suggestions will affect us. Without a vaccine or real effective treatment we’re not sure when it will be safe for us to get back to normal, whatever that “new normal” will look like.

Stay safe and healthy out there, folks!