Fort Worth Stockyards Saunders Park

Yesterday I made mention of a seldom seen part of the Fort Worth Stockyards, that being the Marine Creek Linear Park and the part of the Linear Park known as Saunders Park. I said this spot reminded me of Venice, but the photo I used didn't really do a good job of showing what this park looks like. Hence this followup blogging.

I'll use the verbiage from my Eyes on Texas website webpage about this part of the Stockyards.

Most Fort Worth Stockyard's visitors do not realize a river runs through it, well, actually a creek, Marine Creek, which a short distance from this point will join the Trinity River. In the above photo we are standing under the bridge which most people walking on Exchange Avenue don't realize they are on when they are in the White Elephant Saloon or standing near the Fort Worth Stockyards sign. There is a paved trail called the Marine Creek Linear Park of which this location is a part.

Now we are in the aforementioned Saunders Park, overlooking Marine Creek. This is a very attractive, scenic part of the Stockyards that few see. There is a sign on the south side of Exchange Avenue pointing visitors to an alley that leads to the park, but that one sign seems to be the only effort made to direct people to this location. Tim Love's Lonesome Dove Bistro is the only Stockyards venue to take advantage of this asset. The Lonesome Dove has a deck overlooking the park where diners can enjoy the view.

When you explore around the Saunders Park zone you can see signs that at some point in time it was bigger, with trails eroded and rockwork fallen apart. The Stockyards area and North Main Street seem to have a history of projects that don't quite get finished. I think one of them is called something like La Gran Plaza. Basically an alley was fixed up, sort of Mexican themed, but it didn't get finished. I think the Rose Marine Theater was part of that renewal attempt.

Another thing about Saunders Park. It was in the tunnel part of this trail that I saw the biggest snake I've seen since I was in Texas. That was very unsettling. I think it was a water moccasin. But when I get in snake panic mode my snake identification skills tend to suffer.