Jasper opens The Parklands nature trail
A 1-mile trail winds around the park whose original landscaped and manicured golf-friendly nature had been replaced with just nature.
“This is like a walking through a field,” Assistant Park Director Mike Oeding said. “It is entirely different than the other trails in the city. It is really quite scenic. I think people will really enjoy it.”
This managed meadow is part of the plan provided by CityVisions and Gamble and Associates for the development of new park. Oeding explained he and his crew are working to allow the indigenous Indiana plants to proliferate while knocking back the intrusive species and noxious weeds.
Visitors to the new trail will notice that most of the time the sounds of the city and streets fade away as it winds through the former country club. Those sounds are replaced with the singing crickets and grasshoppers, birds, and the croaking frogs in the two ponds along the path.
The grass is about thigh high framing both sides of the trail that weaves through the park. Most of the path is paved with some sections that deteriorated covered in mulch and a few grassy sections used to connect areas where the pavement stops. Walkers are required to stay on the trail in the mowed area.
It is about a 20-minute walk from start to finish with three rest areas with benches or picnic tables and two porta-potties with a sanitation area are located near a maintenance shed near the north side of the trail.
The city wanted to open the park to the public as quickly as possible and sees this as just the first step in its development.
“This is just the very, very beginning of the whole thing,” Oeding said. “And hopefully get some input from them with some more ideas of what we can do.”
Oeding explained that he has been working on the trail with his crews on a daily basis and they have seen quite a bit of wildlife. “There’s deer, geese, and all sorts of small game. You see something everyday,” he said. “It’s really kinda neat to have this right in the middle of Jasper.”
Oeding and the city credit the Hanselman family, who owns Klubhaus 61 — the former Jasper Country Clubhouse and restaurant —, in allowing the park to open by providing parking in the Klubhaus 61 parking lot. Visitors enter the Klubhaus 61 parking lot from Newton Street/U.S. 231 and park in the southwest corner of the parking lot; there is no other entrance yet. The trail head is marked from the corner of the parking lot.
The trail will be open from dawn to dusk.
Walkers are to stay on the trail and designated rest areas and not wander into the overgrown grasses.
No motorized vehicles, bikes, skateboards, or inline skates are allowed on the trail. It is made for walkers.
Parents are responsible for the safety and supervision of children.
Pets are allowed but must be on a leash at all times and pet owners must clean up after their pets. Baggies will be provided.
The trail is not a camping area; open fires, burning of any kind, and fireworks are prohibited.
Glass containers are not allowed in the park.
There is no smoking and consuming alcoholic beverages in the park.
Feeding of the wildlife and fishing or swimming in the ponds is prohibited.
