Bachman Lake

It was a beautiful day yesterday and I wanted to go for a walk/hike, but I didn't want to go anywhere I'd been before. So I pulled out the Dallas Parks & Rec. list of parks and perused it, eventually deciding on a park with a 5K path around a lake, Bachman Lake. The decision was made partly based on its relatively close proximity to my home and partly on the fact that there's a lake.

Below is the widest shot of the lake I was able to get with my crappy phone camera.

Bachman Lake

Reeds along the lake. Kind of pretty, I thought.

Most of the walk is a paved path that goes all the way around the lake. There is a small off-shoot (some of it paved, some not) that I believe is actually the Bachman Greenbelt. It is this off-shoot that I thought was the best part of the whole walk. Here's a picture of it:

Really, the picture hardly does it justice. This path is absolutely beautiful, idyllic and serene. I felt like I was in a fairytale.

There are a lot of turtles.

Turtles sunning themselves on a log.

There were turtles sunning themselves on this half-
submerged pipe too, but they slipped into the water
when I appeared.

There are also a lot of wildflowers.

In fact, there's a lot to enjoy about Bachman Lake, but I have to say that the park kind of has a dual personality. It's located along the busy Northwest Highway, where it's impossible to escape the traffic noise except for on the Greenbelt.

It's also located next to what I believe is a Southwest repair hangar. At least, that's my best guess, since I saw an awful lot of Southwest airplanes landing and taking off, and the park is nowhere near the airport.

Lastly, there's also a water treatment plant on the lake. The buildings themselves, red brick and retro, aren't bad to look at, but you have to detour around the plant for a portion of the trail before you can get back to the lake, which kind of put a damper on my enthusiasm.

Even so, the park has a couple of playgrounds and what I believe is a community center. I saw people fishing. I also saw people kayaking - at the west end of the lake, there's an actual rowing club. And let's not forget the trees:

It smelled heavenly under these pines.

Look at those roots. Wow!

All in all, I enjoyed myself. It was a great walk. I would go back again, but it's definitely not my first choice for a place to go to get back to nature.