So, I got up this morning and decided I wanted to explore some. My co-worker Mary tipped me off about this little place out by Chilies, though she had never been there before, we assumed their were trails. Turns out the place was named Restoration Park. After tooling around through it for an hour, I have to say, this is probably west monroe's best kept secret.
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In the 70s it was a mine that closed down. (no clue what they were mining) and up until the 90s, people had been using it to throw away trash. The city bought it and cleaned it up, turning it into a park. In 2003 it opened to the public.
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As you walk through it, there is quite a bit of really lovely nature, but in and amongst it are periodic piles of trash and detritus. This is either a sad commentary on the city's ability to clean some trash up, or the most brilliant efffing thing that has been done around here in forever. Some of the stuff I saw had no artistic merit at all, but some of it was wonderful.
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There is a lot of work done in wood throughout the park, with quite a bit of raised walkways.
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And the low lying areas are really very pretty.
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But in and amongst this nature, are all these examples of trash. I found this one particularly awesome. Either they were too dim to know how to cut these tires away from the trees growing inside of them, or they planted them this way on purpose. The park is very near I-20, so while you are staring at sites like this, you hear the constant traffic going by. BRILLIANT! Or totally retarded. It could really go both ways.
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It opens up in places, where the "Mine" used to be.
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And they have built several of these observation piers.
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The pond is fantastic, and mostly free of trash.
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A sculpture of a blue H-E-R-O-N that moves with the wind is on the far bank. I would have gotten closer pictures, but workmen were cleaning up the area and I didn't want to make them uncomfortable.
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The main attraction for me was this pier. It snakes through an open area that looks like it might have been hit with a bomb 5 or so years ago and is starting to recover.
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Drowned trees and lilies pads are everywhere.
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The shore practically blends into the water. It surprises the hell out of you when you see it.
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Some of them were blooming, making these little starbursts amid all these sickly pac-men.
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And the pier was quite long.
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But in typical west monroe fashion, they must have made a deal with the construction people to advertise in the middle of the display. It sticks out like a turd in a punch bowl, and is decidedly not brilliant. If they would move the sign to the pier, that would at least be something.
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I loved the ever present green in the open areas, but once again, the constant traffic noises gave it a strange quality.
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There were a couple of painted bird houses, and several bat houses about.
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Look closely, you will see bike tracks.
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Here is the map of the place. It isn't very big, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in interesting sights. I highly recommend visiting it, to either scorn or praise it, depending on what you decide.
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I don't know who he is, but I admire his capitalistic attitude, especially at such a young age. Future C.E.O. in training.
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Rather than do the usual nothing, I suggested we go bowling and the guys all agreed. We had a heck of a lot of fun...
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However none of us will be going on the pro tour any time soon. Tim taunted me mercilessly in the second game, because I suck, which is true. I beat him by 3 points though.
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We met up with Danielle and watched The Goonies outside in a little park downtown.
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It was a little warm, but not unbearable.
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And while the mosquitoes were present, they weren't terrible.
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Afterwards we went to Coda to get a drink. All in all it was a capitol evening.
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some of your resotration park pictues look like mine. and holy crap why wasn't i told about the goonies... sigh.
Sprilly20 · 2009-07-26: 16:30
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I've ran in that park many times. It is one of the nicer aspects of the twin cities.
Falkin · 2009-07-29: 12:08
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