Heritage Park Trail
Heritage Park Trail is a small, locally known city park featuring a paved 0.4 to 0.45 mile loop trail around a retention pond with picturesque views of the lake. The trail is easy and completely paved, making it accessible, and the park offers picnic tables and benches for seating. The area has a peaceful atmosphere with trees and wetland plants, and sightings of waterfowl and beavers. Despite its beauty, the park has some issues with trash pollution from nearby roads and lacks a dedicated parking lot, though some street parking is nearby. The park is free to visit, open from dawn to dusk, and is generally safe but the proximity to a busy highway affects noise and visual ambiance.
Reviews
Small park, trails could use some trimming and the pond could use some cleaning. Overall not to bad for a place right next to the freeway.
Tried to visit this park while in the area, pulled into what I thought was a driveway off the street only to find out it is a walking path to the park. Drove around and was unable to locate anywhere to park.
A small local city park featuring a paved, but somewhat uneven, 0.4 mi loop around a retention pond on the Mill Creek watershed. There is not much here beyond the trail, a small ornamental fountain, and a few benches to sit on around the pond. There is no parking lot, but a small amount of street parking is available by the nearby Speedway. The plant life surrounding the pond is dominated by Honeysuckle and Teasel, with a few Dogwoods. Unfortunately the area collects a lot of trash from runoff and the nearby Cross County Highway. Evidence of past beaver activity is present, and the drain is protected by some Beaver resistant fencing to prevent flooding.
A cute little walking trail park with a water feature, benches, picnic tables, and a large pond. Unfortunately it suffers from rampant pollution via trash from Reagan and Hamilton Ave. Consequently also causing a large amounts of noise pollution from road noise. I truly wish the county would throw up some sound barriers to protect the park, from noise and trash. Also the honeysuckle is a major issue here as well.
★ Popularity: Locally known.
★ Size/Location: Small.
★ Trail difficulty: Easy.
★ Business Hour: Dawn to dusk.
★ Scenery and views: Lake view.
★ Parking: None.
★ Accessibility: None.
★ Amenities: Benches.
★ Condition and cleanliness: Clean trail, not-so-clean everything else.
★ Safety: Comfortable
★ Crowd levels: Almost empty.
★ Reservation: Not needed.
★ Expense: Free.
I went on a hike today that I’ve been wanting to go on for a while now at Heritage Park Trail, and it’s pretty cool! It’s a loop that’s about 0.45 miles long and it goes around a little lake. The trail is completely paved and there’s basically no elevation at all, so it’s super easy to walk. One of the best parts about the trail is that you can see the whole lake from anywhere on the trail, which is really pretty. However, you can also see this super busy highway nearby which is kind of an eyesore. But, there are a lot of plants around the trail, which makes it really nice and peaceful. Even though there was a bunch of litter on the side of the trail, the trail itself seemed really well-maintained and clean. The benches were really nice and looked like they were pretty new too. There were a bunch of trees around the trail and some wetland plants near the lake shore. There are sightings of some waterfowl and beavers living in the lake! One thing that kind of sucked was that there was no parking lot for the trail. I had to park near a crematory nearby, and I’m not even sure if that’s legal or not. But overall, I felt pretty safe walking in the trail and just being in the area.
Overall, I would say the trail was pretty good, but I didn’t love that it was right next to a busy highway and there was no parking lot. But, it was still really nice and definitely worth checking out!