When the weather is as nice as it's been this summer, I like to be outside. Hendricks County offers several very nice parks where my wife and I can take the kids to get them out of the house, get some fresh air and exercise, and learn a thing or two.
What I didn't know until recently is that Hendricks County is home to a lot more parks than I originally thought.
We love going to McCloud Nature Park in North Salem or to Ellis Park in Danville, but variety is the spice of life, right?
I wanted to learn more about Sodalis Nature Park in Plainfield and check on the progress of the new W.S. Gibbs Memorial Park near Avon, so I got on Hendricks County Parks & Recreation's website and made a couple of fantastic discoveries:
Each park on the map is identified by a green marker, and since this is an interactive map, I wanted to see what happens when you click on one of the green markers, though you can also search by category or name.
I picked one park that I'm extremely familiar with, given my involvement with the Danville Girls Softball Association: Twin Bridges Recreation Area.
Click on the green marker and a pop-up screen comes up with all kinds of information about the place:
I clicked around and found all sorts of hidden treasures. Some have playground equipment, some have open green spaces, some have trails, some have shelters and picnic tables and grills.
The first one I'm going to try is Lambert Park in Clayton. I've been through Clayton a zillion times but never paid enough attention to notice the 6-acre park there on West Michigan Street. The photo on the interactive website makes it look nice.
I see that there's playground equipment for my kids, there's a shelter there so that I don't have to sit in the sun while they play, and there are picnic tables there for us to eat our lunch.
It makes me want to go to Clayton to check out Lambert Park for myself. I'll let you know how it goes.
We love going to McCloud Nature Park in North Salem or to Ellis Park in Danville, but variety is the spice of life, right?
I wanted to learn more about Sodalis Nature Park in Plainfield and check on the progress of the new W.S. Gibbs Memorial Park near Avon, so I got on Hendricks County Parks & Recreation's website and made a couple of fantastic discoveries:
- They've given their website a facelift recently.
- They've added a cool new countywide parks map that identifies a ton of parks within Hendricks County!
Each park on the map is identified by a green marker, and since this is an interactive map, I wanted to see what happens when you click on one of the green markers, though you can also search by category or name.
I picked one park that I'm extremely familiar with, given my involvement with the Danville Girls Softball Association: Twin Bridges Recreation Area.
Click on the green marker and a pop-up screen comes up with all kinds of information about the place:
- Who owns it.
- How big it is.
- Whether or not there's playground equipment.
- How many trails are there.
- What organizations use the park.
- A link to the park's website.
- Driving directions and so much more.
- They even include a photo of the facility.
I clicked around and found all sorts of hidden treasures. Some have playground equipment, some have open green spaces, some have trails, some have shelters and picnic tables and grills.
The first one I'm going to try is Lambert Park in Clayton. I've been through Clayton a zillion times but never paid enough attention to notice the 6-acre park there on West Michigan Street. The photo on the interactive website makes it look nice.
I see that there's playground equipment for my kids, there's a shelter there so that I don't have to sit in the sun while they play, and there are picnic tables there for us to eat our lunch.
It makes me want to go to Clayton to check out Lambert Park for myself. I'll let you know how it goes.
- Hendricks County Parks & Recreation website: click here.
- Hendricks County Parks & Recreation on Facebook: click here.
- Hendricks County Parks & Recreation on Twitter: @HCParksandRec
