Golden

I want to suspend the food talk for a bit to share about a Eugene, Oregon, park I went to yesterday with my granddaughter. I heard about it from WREN (Willamette River and Educational Network), connecting with them a few weeks ago after visiting some of the West Eugene Wetlands. WREN will have their August Wetland Wander in Golden Gardens Park next Tuesday, August 9, 2016, from 9 to 11 am with a focus on late summer insects. Originally just leftover excavation pits from building Beltline Road, these once barely accessible ponds have been renovated, made safer, and made more accessible. I wanted to check them out before deciding whether to drive down next week for the "wander".

We entered about midway along The Jessen Drive side of the park, crossed the soft-surfaced walking path, and paused a moment to see if K could get her new kite to fly. We had a great little breeze, so I let her keep the kite up on a short string while we walked to a more open area. Bad decision. She let out a bit too much string and a cherry tree on a steep embankment snatched it right out of the sky. Fortunately I din't get too mangled while scrambling up, but we had to break the string to get the kite down. She waited while I quickly returned it to the car. The view above shows our first impression of the ponds and I knew I was going to love it here.

First turtle and a drawing of the size of the fish.

More turtles

Almost immediately my eye caught a large, gray shape splashing down into the water. My first thought was "fish"' but then I thought I must be wrong because it was so big. However, as I continued to watch the area while on our walk, I saw it a few more times and realized it was indeed a huge fish. (I think I need to get my license!) We also saw pond turtles on logs and read the informational signage about the need to be careful to avoid stepping on eggs buried under the soil. 

In a little creek K told me she saw a crawfish. I couldn't see it, but took photos of where she was pointing. yep. Once I uploaded the photos I saw it, but the glare makes it a bit hard to see.

Crawfish near the middle of photo

The next pond was so much larger than that first one. It was beautiful there. We saw dragonflies, butterflies, bees, and birds. We also saw a few teens walking along staring at their phones, so we assumed they were playing Pokemon Go.

Along the soft path there were occasional benches; perfect places to sit and enjoy the view of the water, wildlife, and wildflowers. One of the most prolific plants in the area was the wild carrot. their white blossoms were everywhere.

Wild carrots

For more information about the park, check out a few of these links. Enjoy!
   Golden Gardens Park
   Golden Gardens Park on Facebook
 


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