Beautiful Weekend to Visit Bells Bend Park

In a recent comment over at Urban Planet, a May Town supporter suggested that more people needed to be visiting Bells Bend Park and that allowing the urban-density May Town development would increase visitors. He was only correct that more people should visit the park. So, I got my family up this morning, we stopped and had breakfast at Muddea's Chicken and Waffles, and drove out to the park. I came back with a few photos.











I can tell you this right off: the commenter was wrong about the park being idle and the parking lot being empty. In fact, there were a few cars in the lot while we were there and including us, we counted 8 visitors (and 4 dogs) either at the Nature Center or on the trails. We were very pleased to find the Nature Center open today, and the very helpful staffers told us that the numbers of park visitors were increasing as time went by and as temperatures moderated.

The commenter was also wrong in saying that lower numbers of visitors justified sprawling on Bells Bend and building a bridge so that more people can get there. That means that the park only exists for the convenience of larger numbers of more undisciplined people. If folks want to see the wonder of a remote green space and they are willing to act on their own self-initiative, why do we need to risk spoiling its beauty and its character by putting a second downtown and ensuing traffic gridlock right next to it?

While the Nature Center is closed on Sundays, it is open every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (and on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons). They have fun Saturday events scheduled for kids of all ages the rest of the month of August, including a Summer Wildflower Hike on Aug. 30 (9-10 a.m.--for more details e-mail bellsbend@nashville.gov). You should do yourself a favor and visit Bells Bend Park one of these weekends. We should all support this environmental gem.