3228 N Oliver
Background: This is one of the largest parks in Wichita. According to the city, “In its 282 acres are 2 1/2 miles of paved trails which cross native and restored prairies, wetlands, ponds, and woodlands.”
It was acquired in 1971/1972, 1986/1987 and 1995.The parks’ webpage also mentions there are 125 species of wildflowers, 20 species of mammals, 160 species of birds and 21 species of reptiles.
The park is home to the Great Plains Nature Center which we covered in a previous post.
What we did: If it was a little less windy, this would be a perfect Kansas day. Originally we thought we would take one of the short walking trails, but decided to take advantage of the weather and walked from one end of the park to another.
We were excited to check out the “Tunnel of Trees,” which would have been cooler if the trees had leaves. We were just starting to see some signs of spring around the park. We stopped to take in some of the scenery.
There are a lot of wood bridges, which as you will notice in the pictures… I like to photograph.
Jeremy and I spent some time at the lake watching a family try to feed the turtles but the ducks were much quicker. Finally a piece of food was within reach. The turtle headed towards it, a duck spotted it and headed towards it. A race for the food. The turtle got there first, swam right past it and kept on going. The growing crowd of turtle fans were a little disappointed.
It was going to be a country club, then a college campus, now it’s a park in the heart of one of Wichita’s favorite neighborhoods.