Calamity Line Park

We have visited Calamity Line Park a couple of times, and I'm hoping we can go back again once spring is really upon us and trees and flowers are coming back to life (and we stop getting fake-outs back into winter weather).  It's located just a bit east of Santa Fe and K-7 (aka Parker):


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The park is named after Calamity Line, which was (actually the nickname of) a railroad line that went through this area.  This sign near the shelter tells about it.

The trail makes a loop around the park and even crosses the nearby CVS parking lot to another small grassy hill that is not, I believe, part of the park, but I used it in the run I did while we were there.

There's a playground,

a rose garden (which I'd like to see blooming later in the year),

a shelter styled to look like a train depot (pictures aren't that great since there was a family inside the shelter and I didn't want to intrude),

some daffodils coming up,

and over by the CVS, a gazebo and a sort of waterfall where the creek enters underground drainage.

It's a fairly nice park with a neat historic flavor that seems to get good use from local families and residents.  There's a small parking lot, which makes it easier to visit if you don't live nearby.  The trail meanders along for about half a mile as the sign says (more like 0.8 if you include the part west of CVS), has some gentle hills and valleys. and parallels the creek for a while.  The lamp posts along the trail have a nice old-timey look to them.  The shelter has a walkway styled like a train track that goes right through it, like a train station.  Hopefully later I can go back and get some photos of that and the roses in bloom.

Arrowhead Park

After visiting the small Arapaho Park, we decided to visit another in the same day (especially since we knew some heavy snow was due later in the day, which would put the quest on hold for a while).  So we went to Arrowhead Park.

The kids were getting tired when I took this photo, near the end of our time in the park.

Arrowhead Park is a long, narrow strip along Indian Creek and the Indian Creek Trail:


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The green shaded area in the map isn't really tall enough...the sign pictured above actually stands near the top of this map.  The smaller green chunk is a softball field.

Along the trail (which stretches several miles further south, and all the way to Missouri to the northeast), there are two cool arch bridges across the creek,

a playground area next to a picnic shelter,

a seating area near a water fountain,

and a port-a-potty (not pictured, but experimentally confirmed to be in working order).

While we were there, I realized I happened to be wearing my old running shoes (the pair before the ones I use now), and I'd been itching for a run since getting (mostly) over a nasty cough.  So I did a short run up and back the trail while the kids played, tracking my progress on the handy Garmin Fit app on my phone.

Click here to see the track, and here for the app.

We headed home after getting the requisite shot of the sign, and none too soon...within an hour, the front yard looked like this...

Arapaho Park

Arapaho Park is a small park at 12301 S. Arapaho Drive, probably more of a neighborhood park than a city park, but we went there anyway.


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 Just north of the park in the map is the Studio 30 movie theater.

Arapaho Park has a short walking trail (which probably helps kids from the east side get to the school just south of the west side), a park bench, and an open area for horsing around, as well as many trees for climbing.

There's also a stream going through, kind of obscured in the trees.  Some local kids built a sort of ramshackle hideout near it:

It's a small park, but we had a nice time exploring it.  The kids enjoyed running along the trail with the dog.  Even with the hideout, we only spent a fairly short time there, so we decided to visit another park before the weather turned snowy.  (Fourth day of spring, but heavy snow in the forecast...good ol' Kansas...)