Trails offer a unique view of a city's beating heart
- Friends of Bachman Lake
- Jun 10
- 6 min read
by Michael Cintron
The term flyover country typically refers to the regions of the United States that are seldom parts of a conversation. The little-known towns in the midwest, for example, that only come up when someone asks a person they just met "so where are you from?" The inevitable next question follows: "where is that?" That's flyover country – a place you've likely passed over more times than you've realized.
Here in Dallas, the same dynamic happens when we're in our cars. Our daily commutes, shopping errands and even ventures to grab a bite to eat nearly always involve our vehicles. We repeatedly drive through neighborhoods in our insular capsules. We use overpasses to fly over communities like a crop duster that only leaves exhaust fumes and indifference in its wake. It's not entirely our fault, right? This is the infrastructure we've built in the name of convenience. But given the intricately woven strands of interchanges, illogical exit ramps and confusing pavement markings that play hide-and-seek when wet, whose convenience is this infrastructure really serving? Maybe it's time for a change of perspective. Why don't you just take a hike? Seriously.
Walking the many trails around Dallas is not only a healthier, cleaner option for getting around, the slowness of it makes you really take in what makes the city a patchwork of interesting neighborhoods and green spaces. The city sounds are different or sometimes completely gone, as is the case when walking along the Bachman Greenbelt or the Frasier Dam Recreation Area west of I-35.
Sometimes you get to see the underbelly of a city in motion, such as the view along the Skyline Trail where you go under vehicular, pedestrian and rail traffic and get up close and personal with a world that lies beneath ... all in one lazy afternoon.
A walk underneath the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge displays a combination of concrete and semi-dirt paths that follow the flow of the Trinity River between the levies. Sometimes the water is a trickle, and other times a rapid rush, carrying brush, runoff and a few surprises. Birds join along the banks at the water's edge as city buildings rise in the distance providing a mosaic of mirrors reflecting the sun's ever-changing position.
When you take to the trails, Dallas will show you the passage of time, from older structures and historical markers, to the newest engineering creations. Depending on where you go, you might also see neglect and some big city blemishes, but you'll also see progress, or at least an opportunity for something better. It's a truth that's sometimes obscured with a bypass over a forgotten neighborhood – you know, a flyover. But you can't hide an uncomfortable site the way you drape a sheet over a messy bed for too long. Eventually it becomes front and center, and at ground level, undeniably real.
Big city issues aside, the Dallas trails will also show you special moments in its citizens' lives. Take to the downtown bridges in May and you can see graduates taking selfies and photos, using the bridges and skyscrapers as a backdrop. You can also see happy groups of friends and family celebrating a young lady's quinceañera, her colorful and highly decked-out passage into adulthood.
Photographers, joggers, pet walkers, plane watchers, bikers, skaters, fishing fans – you'll chance upon some or all of these as you take to any path along a lake, an airport, or a cityscape. You'll hear laughing children, soaring planes, bird calls, dog barks and whirring bike and skate wheels as you keep time with the pace of your walk and the breaths that you take.
The trail system is a way to slow down and listen to the city sounds humming with a multitude of clashing notes like an orchestra tuning its instruments before a show. Trails also serve as a reminder that life at ground level can be far more interesting than an uninspiring drive to go get ice cream or some coffee.
The Dallas trail network is a work in progress that's growing leaps and bounds thanks to many groups, city leaders, planners and others who can see a vision where people can bike from one end of the Metroplex to the other. We want our little slice of northwest Dallas to be part of this network too. This is why we celebrate every opportunity to lay more pedestrian and biking paths and stitch neighborhoods together using these trails. Despite the challenges, there is good news.
Dallas City Council recently approved the Dallas Bike Plan, a longtime effort to make biking throughout dallas safe and more accessible, especially in neighborhoods where residents have few or no vehicles. Groups like the Dallas Housing Coalition and Dallas Bicycle Coalition have spearheaded advocacy efforts to align the city's mobility and accessibility goals with its environmental ambitions.
Dallas City Council Member for District 6, Omar Narvaez, is the most recent head of the Transportation Committee and has been supportive of efforts to reduce pedestrian accidents and vehicular pollution. District 6 runs through and around Bachman Lake Park, so groups like Friends of Bachman Lake are aligning with the Dallas Bicycle Coalition and the Dallas Trails Coalition, which encompasses various trail groups such as the Friends of the Northaven Trail, the Friends of the Katy Trail and Friends of White Rock Lake, to provide a coordinated movement to connect the various trails with each other. This is an effort more widely undertaken by The Loop Dallas, a public-private initiative whose holistic vision to fund and connect various trails in a 50-mile loop can nicely dovetail into the trail networks in north and northwest Dallas. These are all visions that, when unified, can yield amazing results. And we're getting them!
Back in 2019, just months after Friends of Bachman Lake was formed, the group had a vision for the area around the lake that included better crossings and trail connections. We found it very ambitious and daunting back then. But as you can see from this section of video presented during our first fund raiser in the fall of 2019, it's amazing to see that only a few of these "asks" have not yet come to fruition!
The trail connections we envisioned in 2019 are either being undertaken or are part of a larger conversation over transportation planning and changes to roadways and highway interchanges. We've engaged as many stakeholders as we can muster to keep these ideas alive. We foresee a day in the not-too-distant future when the trail connections are completed and a transformation of our neighborhoods for the better takes shape.
That being said, consider some of the major progress that has happend in and around Bachman Lake park since 2019:
Regional Aquatic Center
Regional Skate Park
Bond money to rehabilitate playgrounds
A restoration of the Bachman Greenbelt
Dredging completed
Dam being rebuilt and spillway modernized
Trail around Bachman being upgraded and landscaped
Airport Lemmon Avenue Trail project and connection to Bachman Trail underway
Talks underway regarding artwork along the Lemmon Avenue Trail
A new trailhead planned at Lemmon Avenue and Marsh (QT Trailhead)
More volunteers than ever engaging in cleanups, trail clearing, foot bridge building, signage, planting and more
It's ironic that Bachman Lake Park and the loop trail that surrounds it lies beneath a flight path at Love Field Airport, because you could literally say that by definition, it's flyover country. But the reality is that Bachman Lake Park is a place to come feel grounded with nature and others in the community. Besides that, the future should be bright enough at Bachman Lake to see all the great things at ground level from every flight above. So there!
"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." Casey Kasem: DJ, Actor, Radio Personality and Entertainer
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