Meanwhile, Down at the Trinity Overlook ...

By Jim Schutze Thu., Feb. 5 2009 at 9:33 AM

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Angela Hunt

The Trinity River Project calls on all of us to use our imaginations. Standing before the scenic overlook, I imagine a beautiful river bordered by clever cafés and chic shops and folks of all shades cycling and kayaking. Someone is playing an accordion. I keep imagining.

Now I imagine that I am rich and no longer need a job. I imagine that I am boarding a jet for Paris. Oh, wow! I'm in Paris now, on the banks of the Seine. Now I imagine someone is slapping me sharply across the face. O.K., here I am back at this Overlook staring out at a bunch of weeds and mud. Gee. That was great. Thanks, Angela Hunt.

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Thanks for the link Jorge, that really looks inviting how they seem to want you on the trail, and not to really get near the water.
Also, the easiest way to get into the corridor to canoe, bike or hike is at Trammell Crow Lake Park off of Sylvan Avenue. http://passengerview.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/trammell-crow-park-dallas/ Map: http://tinyurl.com/b6f992
I bike in the Trinity River Corridor often. The Trinity Levee Trail opened March 19th, 2005, 6.2 miles of primitive trail along the levee top, open to hikers, cyclists, horses. Map: http://www.trinityrivercorridor.com/html/trinity_trails_levee_map.html
Jim, do you know if it's legal to walk down there and check shit out? It seems to me they could put a gravel parking lot down there and when it floods, they close the parking lot. They could probably elevate the parking lot 5 ft or something so that it would avoid being flooded with every rain. After big floods, scrape the thing off.
Anyway Ansel Adams faked his shots. He shoulda worked for Hallmark Cards. Did he work for Hallmark Cards ever?
Jason, you make very good points, and you make them well. I do think the natural riverscape out there is haunting and beautiful and informative of our place on the planet. I think all that crap they're promising to build along the banks is ersatz bullshit, none of which has any money behind it, so, if we're lucky, none of it will happen. Isn't it interesting here that what commenters want to know is whether they can bike, walk and canoe down there. That's the river's greatest value and promise. But the city is still run by people who think nature sucks. You are dead-on right, Jason, about the people who think beauty is in the eye of Ansel Adams. Let them all go to Colorado and spend their summers in traffic jams. You know the best thing about Michigan? It's not fashionable, and the economy's on the rocks. Therefore it has a chance of surviving.
You can canoe down the Trinity River legally. You can put in at Sylvan Avenue and the take out is at Loop 12. I used Trinity River Expeditions on three of my canoe trips along different stems of the Trinity River. It is quite beautiful. www.canoedallas.com
to Scott: I know you can legally canoe. Not sure about the other stuff. There's actually a boat ramp off Sylvan.
Jim, I think you, and probably most Americans, have been successfully conditioned by Ansel Adams that beauty is only seen in landscapes with mountains in the distance, and expansive seas with light waterfalls shining through some soft sunlit haze. Those yellows and browns you're diminishing, are beautiful to a lot of us who grew up in the plains states. You're from Michigan, so I guess you can be forgiven, but alot of us had parents that sent us out to play in creek beds that looked just like the Trinity's, where we discovered fossils, rich clays, and jarred tadpoles. For many of us, it's what a real American landscape looks like...and historically speaking, it drew La Reunion settlers as far as Paris in the 1850's to come to that exact same spot. You might want to dig around the library for a translated copy of "Au, Texas!"...written by frenchman Victor Prosper Considerant, which describes the same mud and toil you do, as the promised land. Here's the french version: http://books.google.com/books?id=Yo8PAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA190-IA6&lpg=PA190-IA6&dq=Au,+Texas!&source=bl&ots=ff_geaCC3s&sig=tvnUrvko9UFXDOTcYAmb36laMeI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA1,M1
why not just let people ride their mx bikes down there? Are there "no trespassing" signs down there now? Can I go walking or mountain biking there? If I drop my canoe in up stream and canoe through there am I doing something illegal? I seriously don't know and have contemplated all of them. I assume they would/couldn't do much if I canoed or biked down there and have always kinda reckoned to do that someday. Catch me if you can!
Actually Schutze that was me slapping you in the face.
I grew up on the banks of the Mississippi. Now that's what I call a river. The Trinity (the part in Dallas, anyway) is a creek in a ditch with a big floodplain. And oops, isn't there a problem with that flood part and the project's specs?