A Walk in the Park

Ed and I caught the bus in Phoenix shortly after 10 this morning and arrived at Lithia Plaza Ashland about 11am and then spent the next two hours walking the paths next to the creek.  These six pics are just a sampling of the 60 that I took.

Ashland, Oregon is one of my favorite towns in the world.  Though I've not ventured far from the Pacific Northwest ever in my life and thus realize that my experience of the world is limited, I still find it hard to imagine a town ever pushing Ashland off my top ten list.

Lithia Park is one of the things I love Ashland for.

 Here we have just hit the section of the path just past the playground where suddenly we seem to be cut off from civilization.  If not for the bark dust and gravel path and the occasional trash barrel and picnic table nestled in the trees beside the path we seem to be alone with nature.  Especially when, a few steps later the sounds of squealing kids is replaced by the sound of the creek water rushing over rocks and birdsong and maybe breezes ruffling the leaves.

 At the large pond about a twenty minute walk up ahead ducks swim and turtles sun on the rocks.

We crossed back and froth across the creek several times via foot bridges like this, standing in the middle at times to watch the water rush by or look up or down stream trying to identify trees and plants.  Ed was able to spot fish in the water but try as I might I could not.

This was taken from the middle of that bridge pictured above which is just below the duck pond.

This is the smaller pond near the park entrance butting up against one of the Shakespeare Festival theaters.  I think of it still as the Swan Pond because there used to be a mated pair of swans that lived there back when I was first introduced to this park in the early 80s.  When I was going to college in Ashland in the late 80s I would sometimes bring my reading homework to Lithia park.  The Swan pond here and a picnic table on the creek bank just past the playground were my two favorite spots.