Pup Walk – Greenwood Urban Wetland

July 2, 2013

Greenwood Urban Wetland

The pups and I planned another wilderness walk this past weekend (despite the spooky gator from last time) but the weather did not cooperate. Our planned hike involved plain, forest, and an observation tower – not good choices with thunder rumbling in the distance so we switched plans to a city loop walk within running distance of the car. It was overcast, no visible lightning despite the thunder. Good walking weather though still 90 degrees.

Benches scattered throughout

I’ve discovered that even after twenty-plus years in Orlando there are still parks and trails we haven’t explored. One of them is Greenwood Urban Wetland. And to my delight, it’s just a few miles from our house. I’ve seen that area from the 408 Expressway and thought “That looks like a nice little place. I wonder how you get there?” I had no idea just how big it really was.

I also didn’t make the connection between Greenwood Urban Wetland (not a particularly appetizing name, but it says what it is) and Greenwood Cemetery. The park is right next to the cemetery, so watch out for funeral processions. There is a screen of trees and other greenery between the two so unless you leave the path and walk down by the water (which we did) you won’t really notice.

Looking toward the cemetery

Getting directions via the address will take you to Greenwood, (turn around before you get to the cemetery and park on the south side of the park).

It’s an easy path with beautiful views no matter which side of the various lakes or ponds you’re on. There are several bridges that take you to different areas of the park, plenty of picnic tables, benches in sun or shade scattered throughout. The dogs and I tend to divide our walks into summer walks (plenty of shade) and winter walks (plenty of sun). This one looks to be a perfect year-round walk.

All City of Orlando parks are dog-friendly, but this one particularly so.

Welcome Pups!

It has a small agility course which our pups weren’t terribly interested in checking out, though I did manage to get them to try the ramp. I thought Gizmo would love it. He didn’t. Yuki tried it and seemed to enjoy it. Jynxie the (normally) Fearless was afraid of it. She was the last to try. Much to my surprise, Tinkerbell, who has the shortest legs of all, fell in love with it (though she preferred to sun on it rather than walk on it) and I almost couldn’t get her off of it.

Tinkerbell – Agility Champion

View from the north side

We discovered there is parking on this side, so will try this next time.

Yuki and Jynx admiring the sidewalk art

Bridge in the park

Bird life is abundant – we saw a huge gray heron and chased him for a bit trying to get a decent picture but he did not cooperate. Red-winged blackbirds, blue jays, and a pair of mockingbirds accompanied us on the return to the car but I couldn’t get a decent picture of any of them. The ibis, thankfully, was more than happy to pose. Just as we were getting into the car a woodpecker stopped by to show us either a piece of waffle or piece of toast it had snagged from somewhere but then I had put the camera away (darn it!)

Unlike the other birds, the Ibis was not camera shy

Within five minutes after returning home, we were in the midst of a thunderstorm so the happily exhausted pups settled in for a nap.

Princess Miyuki taking a post walk nap

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