I love this little park! It reminded me of my childhood when I would spend hours walking through the field on neighbor’s farms. The acres and acres of meadows were full of birds.  The views of the French Broad River and a small pond were both worth stopping to see.

We started at the Blue Bird barn at the entrance. There are two picnic table in the barn if you want to picnic there. We brought two small chairs and wanted to eat with a grand view so we kept going.

We had to choose to either go on the 1.2 mile paved greenway that looked really nice or follow one of the more than 8 miles of mowed grass trails that wind around the refuge. We choose a quarter mile short cut to the ridge to try to catch the sunset from up there.

Once we got on the ridge we enjoyed the mowed trail. The grass is cut pretty short and the path is wide. We followed it past several bird houses and picked a spot to picnic near a bench under a Hack Berry tree.

We saw a couple of ground hogs – followed one of them down the trail for about 40 yards. Lots of rabbits and a few deer. My Honey got to see her first view of white tail deer loping in big arches through deep grass. They were bounding high and flipping their white tails. We marveled at how many bird calls we heard and how many birds there were going about their business. It was much like early morning in the country. I can’t even imagine how loud it is there in the morning.

The paved trail is mostly flat and the mowed trails have enough change in elevation to make me work a little but over all it is a moderate walk. Location: 2809 Kelly Lane Kodak, Tennessee 37764 – It’s off of I-40 East exit 402 just past Knoxville for us (we were traveling east from Nashville). In just about 4 miles from the interstate – there it is. These last four miles are very narrow roads. A large port-a-potty at the entrance is the only facility.

This was worth seeing! If we lived near by, it would be a regular daily exercise place.

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Have you been to a park recently? Would you share your experience with us?