Hendrick’s Park

It is always the way. You spend hours driving around the countryside seeing nice scenery and parks and wildlife, often going for long day trips to get as far a field as possible in the hope of seeing something really spectacular. You’re not often disappointed (although yesterday’s readers will know we came pretty close!).

But then, right near the end of your stay, or after you have been in a place for ages, you realise that there are some really nice places just on the doorstep. In fact, ten minutes drive away in this case (or rather twenty minutes if you allow time for my directionally challenged map reading).

Hendrick’s Park is right next to the University of Oregon but we just don’t seem to have found the time so far to go there. Despite the recommendations of a couple of people I suppose we weren’t so enthralled at the prospect of going to a small town centre park and time has just passed us by.

However, today was the day, and with the weather forecasters predicting a 20 degree high we set off in high spirits. The weather forecasters got it wrong but we weren’t complaining at the 15-16 degree temperature, and we also have to say that Hendrick’s Park lived up to the hype.

Set on top of a hill, there is forest and a whole load of trails - despite the relatively small area that the park covers, each trail was secluded from other trails by the high trees. We had quite a pleasant walk. Only one complaint though was that it was pretty hilly so perhaps I will avoid going on any running excursions there! Unfortunately I didn’t have control over the camera so no decent photos were taken!