Deep In The Trinity Forest

It has been over a year since my last trip out to the new trail head of the AT&T Trail that makes a trip through the heart of the Great Trinity Forest; that makes a trip throught the heart of the Trinity River Audubon Center; that is next to the New Trinity Forest Golf Course. The trail was dry, although it has been recently cleared of mud and  debris from flooding. The trail is in the lowlands of the more than 8,000 acres of the Great Trinity Forest along the Trinity River as it flows south toward the Gulf of Mexico. It is virtually undisturbed because it  is in lowlands and a hardwood forest.Perfect for a massive forest to explore, canoe, raft as the river flows through the thousands of acres.

The first thing that was noticed after leaving my car in the trail head parking lot, along the entry of the Trinity River Audubon Center, was the putting green grass on the Number 5 green of the new golf course where the Byron Nelson is to move in 2018. Last year, it was sculptured out from dirt but no putting green grass was growing anywhere near the green itself. Also noted was the No 5 flag pin in the greens cup.

From there on , it was my first trip deep into the forest itself. Frankly, when about a mile in, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. It was a bit scary as no location markers were yet installed. The trail is winding, curvey and very eerie. Neither can it be imagined of me walking that trail after dark or before first light as is permitted. If so, packing more equipment and taking someone with me would be in order.  Becoming very aware of my surroundings quickly and seeing some questionable wildlife at a distance might have or could have been a threat. But, that is what nature trials are designed to be by design.

The trail will connect soon to the White Rock Trail and when fully complete will be the most awesome ride or hike trail bar none! It took about 45-minutes to  walk the first four miles, which when reversed is another four miles and another 45-minutes. This is the time of year to go before the mosquito population arrives.

Deep into the Great Trinity Forest

The Number 5 Green and Pin is the southern most point of the course with the Great Trinity behind going along the Trinity River south, still.

This is near the trail head with the No 5 pin off to the right. You can see the cement trail that makes it's wal for 8 miles. There is another shorter trail that branches off to another trailhead and parking lot that is 3.5  miles and not yet connected in a loop.

 

Today Was A Productive Day.

The weatherman said that the best day of the next week was going to be today and "you should go out today and enjoy it before the cold really sets in." I checked the National Weather Service website and after reading the discussion section, I was out the door with camera case in under 10-minutes. After checking the gas prices and finding a $1.79 station in the area, I drove to the station and filled up. It's been a long time since I filled my car for $20.69. Then, I pointed  Hildegaard (that's my car's name) toward White Rock and beyond--Great Trinity Forest Way-- beyond. Why? I have pictures!!

If you haven't been out Buckner Boulevard (Loop 12 South) for a while, you will discover that around the Audubon Society's amazing hide-a-way, Buckner, (aka Loop 12) is now renamed Great Trinity Forest Way. Fitting, because it is  the northern top of the heart of the Great Trinity Forest , a 6,000 acre urban forest.

There are a couple of areas down the driveway to park before you must pay for the Audubon and I wanted to see if anything had changed.  It had changed a lot! On the way back out the long drive,  I found two cars of Dallas Police Officers, parked in the free area. Two doing their routine checks and two that were on bicycle duty already out riding. The first two officers were able to answer my questions that I had and my main reason to come out there today. Alongside the roadway inbound, there were piles and piles of dirt being moved around and pipe and tubes and stake flags and bulldozers. I ask the first set of officers if the construction that was visible was the new golf course? I got a big smile from both of them and a strong, YES! So, half my search had ended before it had officially begun. My hunches had paid off. But there was a serendipity to be had as well. AT & T had paid out $2.5 million dollars to add to and expand the hiking and biking trails from the Audubon Society to Elam Road. In fact, between the roadway going into the Audubon and the new golf course construction, the new concrete trail was off through the Great Trinity already.

I shot what is reported to be the 5th green and fairway, of the 400 plus acre complex known as Trinity Forest Golf Course.  The other two offices that was  on their bikes were returning to the parking lot  and yelled out, "hey, how ya doing ?" as they arrived at their patrol car to load up their bikes. I walked over to the car and explained that I had been given direction  from the two earlier officers but I was uncertain about what was meant my a turn location they had given me. The officers on their bikes cleared that up for me.

Reported to be the 5th Green and Fairway at the Trinity Forest Golf Course.

Ribbon Cutting in March,2015

Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw with Jonas Woods, the birds will already be learning to worm the course by the time it opens in 2016.

The second location? The new and nearly complete Texas Horse Park. I had taken some pictures of riders at the Columbus Day Parade on the Continental Bridge Pedestrian Park and one of the guy said that I should go check it out, that it was going to be amazing. So, I put it on my list of projects to photograph. Later adding the Trinity Forest Golf Course, it fit right in  with the Texas Horse Park as the two locations are within a mile of each other.

On leaving, I drove up 175 to I-45 to Central Expressway (US 75). Somewhere about Walnut Hill Lane there was a plumb of black smoke rising straight up miles ahead. As I am driving north, I'm thinking, that should be about Coit and Beltline. As it turned out, I was two blocks off! I shot the house fire with the help of the Richardson Fire Department and the Richardson Police. Long story short, no one was hurt. The fire came under control and the live feed picked up 20 images on the 48-hour rotation  cycle. Since those images are running on the live feed, I didn't include any of those here.

Edited to change Avenue to Boulevard 07/01/2015