After Hours Artwalk Leads To Closed Circle Trail With Original Wichita Falls

Yester evening after an hour of walking around the downtown Wichita Falls After Hours Artwalk I got my bike out of its truck bed storage location and pedaled to the Circle Trail, intending to head west to Lucy Park, checking out what I thought would be the newly re-furbished Wichita Falls, with a new bridge and trail improvements.

Instead I came to what you see here, a Trail Closed sign with another sign behind that sign saying Falls & Trail Closed for Construction.

I thought this construction was supposed to be done being constructed. Don't I remember reading the project would take about a month? And that I read that months ago?

The closed trail soon turned from a lemon into lemonade when I turned my bike around and headed the other direction, with the Circle Trail passing through landscape which created the illusion I had left the city to enter a verdant, lush jungle of green following the Wichita River.

Within a half mile I found myself passing the Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture on the opposite bank of the river. Shortly after that I began hearing the sound of water flowing in rapids mode.

And then I came to something I did not know still existed, much less expect to see.

Those rapids I was hearing were at the location of the original Wichita Falls, which I thought had long totally disappeared during a flood way back late in the century which preceded the previous century, as in sometime in the late 1800s.

My weak photographer skills did not do justice to the Wichita River water which was moving rapidly behind the sign which tells us...

THE ORIGINAL FALLS ON THE BIG WICHITA RIVER FOR WHICH THE CITY WAS NAMED

One of the Circle Trail's swinging benches overlooks the site of the original Wichita Falls. I sat and swung for awhile before continuing in a easterly direction.

I was not long back rolling my wheels, or so it seemed, when I was surprised to find myself already at Williams Park. I think at that point it was only four miles, give or take a mile or two, back to my abode's location adjacent the Circle Trail.

But, I needed to reverse direction so as to return to my bike hauling vehicle.

As I started to head west I realized the illuminating orb was beginning to retreat from its daily lighting duty.

The impending setting of the sun caused me to increase the speed I was rolling my wheels. Even so, I stopped at the Original Wichita Falls for one more photo.

A sunset view of that aforementioned swinging bench overlooking what remains of Wichita Falls.

Why did I not know that one could still find the original Wichita Falls, and that such was marked by signage? I have perused multiple publications about Wichita Falls and never came upon this information.

The main thing I discovered, besides Wichita Falls, from yester evening's bike ride, is that doing such late in the day makes for a pleasant, shady ride, unlike doing the same thing in the middle of a HOT day.

I think I will be making visiting Wichita Falls a monthly thing after I walk around the monthly downtown Wichita Falls After Hours Artwalk...