Dallas Parks: Trammell Crow Lake
The manmade lake here is odd, but not nearly as odd as the four or five stone cattle that stand eating grass or lounging about, all named, I guess, after the Trammell Crow family women: Ruth, Lucy, Annette, and Margaret. Strange, but wonderful and hilarious.
Photo: Lucia Simek
This is an installment in our ongoing “Renegade’s Guide to Dallas Parks.” To find out what this is all about, visit here.
We had been up climbing on the levees taking some photos of the skyline. The kids were covered in sandy dust, and had pebbles in their hair, down their shirts, and in their shoes. (From up there we could see the whole city spanning out in a curve toward the north, and the view seemed to call for throwing fistfuls of sand into the air.) We clamored down off the levee, kids skidding and falling on gravel, and rushed back to the lot where our car was parked, and where a cop was ogling it suspiciously. We flagged him off, and parked the car legally (oops).
I’d never been to this park before, though I’d driven by it for years wondering about it. It’s set smack in the middle of the flood plain, which affords it stunning views of the city, and some breeze. The manmade lake here is odd, but not nearly as odd as the four or five stone cattle that stand eating grass or lounging about, all named, I guess, after the Trammell Crow family women: Ruth, Lucy, Annette, and Margaret, as I recall. Strange, but wonderful and hilarious. These stone bovine monuments sit like sentinels over the park, forcing you into a pastoral frame of mind, all the while calling attention to the glaring fact that the city looms behind them. My favorite is Annette. She sits under the tree without a urban care in the world, despite the fact that some brigand has smashed beer bottles all around her, and her quintessential shade tree has been tattooed (quite strikingly) with somebody’s something-to-say.
After petting the obliging cattle, we followed the sidewalk around the small lake and out into the green space beyond, toward the trees. And there behind a screen of old trees and wild flowers, we discovered the river. The actual, confounded, real-deal Trinity River. I’d never been so close to it before, but there it was, flowing along with a real river sound, making us all hush-up to witness it.
I could have pitched a tent right there and kept Annette for a neighbor.
How to get there:
3700 Sylvan Ave, Dallas, Tx 75207
These are great pictures!! Thanks for reminding us that we already have places we can start to visit within the levees.
25 May 2009 at 7:11 am