380 Greenbelt Park - Actually Green

The 380 Greenbelt park is one of the precious green spaces in the city of Denton, TX. The park is the starting or ending point of a 10 mile trail that meanders through the Ray Robert's Lake green belt/ watershed area. Most of the trail is surrounded by trees which makes it very beautiful during the spring months. This place is thronged by everyone that loves outdoors - runners, hikers, walkers, photographers, cyclists, even kayaking and fishing enthusiasts. The elm fork of trinity river runs along the trail making it an ideal spot for Kayaking.

I was at the trail on Monday and I was able to sight a Possom, a fox probably or coyote... both the animals were so quick that they scampered into the bushes as soon as I neared their location. I will be visiting this park often and will post updates as I visit.

 

Ervin Park, McKinney, TX

Here are some more pictures of Ervin Park landscapes. This is a large and sprawling park with great hiking/ walking trails. I will definitely complete this trail soon... it must be a few miles long.

Ervin Park, McKinney TX

This evening I decided to take a short break and visit one of the local parks. McKinney, Texas has a number of large parks with great outdoor activity options, Ervin Park is one such location. There are miles and miles of walking, hiking, bicycling, mountain biking trails in this park, some tree cover and mostly vast open spaces. Of course there are fire pits, gazebos and picnic tables for people to enjoy the outdoors. Surprisingly there are camping areas also, I wonder who would come and camp here, so close to the city.

Here are some pictures:

Lake Bonham Recreation Area

Bonham, Texas is a small town with just over 10,000 population, but it has enough attractions to sustain a tourist inflow of many times its population. The Bonham State Park with its beautiful lake; the Sam Rayburn library and museum, the Fort Inglish Park and then the Lake Bonham Recreation Area. Each one of these places attract several visitors during the summer when the weather is nice and warm.

Lake Bonham is particularly interesting because it is a huge lake, with several channels and recreational opportunities. Sprawling over 1,000 surface acres the lake's azure waters are a treat to the eye and its fish are a treat to those who catch them and eat. The of course like every other recreation area there are camping, walking, hiking, boating and other recreational facilities.

Entrance to the Lake Bonham Recreation Area

Picinic area Lake Bonham Recreation Area

Fishing Pier at Lake Bonham Recreation Area

Lake Bonham facade

Swimming beach in Lake Bonham Recreation Area

Bonham State Park

Last week I visited Bonham State Park in North Texas area. This is a comparatively small park with a 261 acre lake in the center. The park offers the usual activities such as bicycling, walking, hiking, some wilderness, camping, swimming, canoeing, boating, fishing, among others. Anyway now it is winter and coupled with the bad economy, there were hardly any visitors in the park. It seemed as if apart from the staff I had the park all for myself. I drove around the lake, took some short walks along the trails and departed.
Here are some pictures of the Bonham State Park.

380 Green Belt Park

America is a land of contrasts. On one side there are super highways where people zoom at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour and on the other side there are hundreds of thousands of acres of wild forest area with no human habitation for miles around. There are teeming cities which host lush green forests within their limits. This has been possible for several reasons. The low population and vast land area of this country has enabled the makers of modern America to create the country of their preference. Recently I visited this park sited next to the highway that links two large cities. This stretch has been marked off as the green belt and hence no development of any sort has taken place. This is a green area dedicated for nature and people to enjoy the same. There is a equestrian trail for those who love their horses and want to ride them not too far from the city and then there are walking, hiking and bicycling trails. The trail is flanked by thick forest of tall ancient trees which makes it an ideal place to visit during late summer and early fall. Here are some pictures.

Wilson Creek Trail, McKinney

Here are some pictures of the Wilson Creek Trail and the McKinney Town Lake recreation area. Having this in close proximity from our apartment is a real advantage, I hope the trees here will provide enough shade during the hot summer months and let us enjoy the nature until the freeze sets in.

Soothing Green Acres...

Mckinney, Texas was ranked among the top-5 places to live in the US. I don't know when this ranking was done or who voted for it. But one thing I know for certain is that McKinney is a small city with large open spaces and parks and recreation areas. The McKinney Town Lake recreation area is a classic example. There is a lake, nature trail, community center, bicycling trail, sports and recreation area with facilities to play several sports. I am particularly fond of the people-friendly birds in the lake, these ducks, and geese walk around fearlessly around humans and even give way when bicyclists whiz past in frenzy.

Lake Mineral Wells, Texas

Lake Mineral Wells, Texas is a popular tourist spot even to this date. The state park is a good hiking, rock climbing, fishing, camping and picnic spot. This was the lake which attracted thousands of Americans during the past century. They believed that a bath in the waters of this lake would rid them of all ailments.

Bicycle Trails in DFW Area

I have been bicycling in the area for the past 6-7 months and here are pictures of some of the trails I have hit in this time. My favorite trail continues to be the Chisolm trail in Plano which flanks a creek and has the best scenery and minimum road intersections. Another trail I like is the Blue Bonnet trail because of its convenient location adjacent to our apartment. Take a look at the pictures and decide for yourself. In Irving I like the Campion trail which runs alongside the Elm fork of Trinity river. I haven't biked on this trail since a long time, hope I will hit the trail again soon.
Blue Bonnet Trail, Plano


Campion Trail, Irving



Arbor Hills, Plano

Tour de Cure, DFW

Despite the heavy downpour bicycle enthusiasts across the DFW area participated in the four bicycle rides organized in various parts of the metro area. I volunteered for Tour de Cure organized by the American Diabetes Association, I was at the very first rest stop which was visited by all the riders except those who did the 5 mile route. I guess because of the many rides in the area riders were split between the events and there were only about 500-odd riders participating in the Tour de Cure. Organized to raise funds for diabetes research this ride has special meaning to me personally because both my parents are diabetic and I hope a cure is discovered soon so they can get off the pill and lead normal lives.
What I saw at the ride was even more surprising. There were several young children riding and volunteering for this ride who were diagnosed diabetic. But they were spirited and wanted to do something about it and hence they were there braving thunder storms and the sudden cold to cheer riders or to ride themselves.
I managed to capture some good images of the riders from my vantage point at rest stop 1. It was bad lighting and incessant drizzle so the pictures have not come out all that good, but here is perhaps the best of a bad lot. Do let me know what you feel about it.

Views Getting Boring

When I started this blog I was posting loads of pictures because of two reasons. One I was new to this country and everything that seemed different from the place I am from appeared wonderfully and awesome. Two I didn't have much to do and wasn't licensed to drive so rather than sitting idle I started capturing the views by the road.

But now I am neither new to the country nor am I the perennial passenger. I have got my license and have started driving. This unfortunately cripples me while traveling. I can't just take pictures while I am driving. So this blog like many others is kinda becoming text heavy.

In this post I hope to present some interesting pictures of the recent biking event I attended: The Collin Classic 2009. Since I was riding the Collin Classic I didn't carry my camera and had to depend on Flickr where I found a user's (Ateupamateur) album with some nice pictures, which I am using here.

Riders at the start line

Riding in the blazing hot sun

Riding in the blazing hot sun