We had decided to take a little drive through and around Fort Worth to a place called Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge. The refuge isA 3,000-acre preserve with 20 miles of hiking trails, plus buffalo, gators, deer and many species of birds.
We were planning to make a day of it so we loaded our packs with food and water. I made sure one of the packs had room for Annie. She loves to go on hikes but she does wear out before the rest of us and hand carrying her becomes tiresome.
We had to stop at the entrance to pay a small fee and Penny Lane decided to shove her head out the driver's side window to meet the attendant. She also decided to bark and bark and bark. Thus began questions about our Labradoodle. Will she behave in the park? Does she have a leash? Penny seemed to sense that we were talking about her and she calmed down and proceeded to clean Rob's ears. We assured the attendant that Penny was just very excited and that she would behave and she would stay on her leash. A cursory comment was made about little Annie.
PENNY LANE SUDDENLY ON HER BEST BEHAVIOR AS WE MAKE OUR WAY INTO THE REFUGE
We made it to the parking area and picked a trail head. The trails are marked with symbols and we chose the river bottom trail. The parking area sits atop a ridge line and our trail quickly headed downhill.
AND AWAY WE GO
THE TRAIL MAP
We made it to the river bottom and Penny Lane was sure this meant a swim for her. We had been warned of gators so that was not going to happen.
The trail definitely had a "gator" feel to it but it was well worn and the rangers had told us that gators were never seen on the trial side of the refuge. They tended to stay on the non trail side and on the islands. Also, it is February and the water temps are still fairly cool. This makes the gators slow and lethargic.
VERY MARSHY.
We hiked along river bottom for a bit and then made our way inland. This made for a nicer hike. Penny's constant pulling towards the water and our gator paranoia was a bit much. Our inland hike took us through and around a buffalo range and a prairie dog town. We did not see a single buffalo or prairie dog but it was incredibly peaceful.
There is sometimes a trade off when visiting places in the off season. The things that many come to see are less visible but the areas are much less populated. We enjoyed the latter. We saw a few people but, at times, felt like we had the place to ourselves.
We had hiked for about 1.5 hours and decided to stop for lunch. We found a nice shaded area and had our sandwiches. The girls got snacks and water. Annie was starting to let me know that she was getting tired so I loaded her into my pack.
A VERY WILLING PASSENGER
Our hike consisted of a combination of many of the marked trails. We ended up being out for a few hours and we were all hot and tired by the time we got back to the car.
We did want to make one more stop before we left the refuge. We hopped into the car and drove a few miles to Greer Island. We made our way to the trail head and took a quick, easy loop around the island.
The Margaret Parker Memorial Trail was named after the woman who made it her life's mission to preserve this piece of land for future generations. Margaret Parker lived to be 99 years old and took her last canoe trip around this island when she was in her 90's.
With our hiking done, we got into the car and made our way out of the refuge.
It had gotten a bit warm so we got our maps and started looking for a non gator area for Penny Lane to swim. It did not take us very long to find a park around Lake Worth.
With her swim done, Penny Lane was tired and happy. Annie was just happy to watch the swimming part and the ride back to Lewis was very peaceful. It is a bit like the end of a long day at Disney....only much cheaper and with dogs instead of kids.
Sunday was a day for a run, taking the dogs for a walk and an awesome used book store.
We had another lovely and adventurous weekend under our belts.
Another great day in this thing we call life.
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