Owen Conservation Park in the Heart of Madison!

I was pretty amazed by this little gem of a park.  It's located right in the midst of a neighborhood on Madison's west side.  I recruited my niece for a little adventure and while she's game for just about anything, it shouldn't take too long (1 hour is about the limit).  We were in here for longer than an hour, however!  It's just a 1.5 mile trail - a loop, but we found much to explore and enjoy and took in more than 2 hours worth of this beautiful space within the city.

We started off from the parking lot on a back loop that did get close to the surrounding road and we could hear the sounds and see some of the surrounding neighborhood, but this wooded space was a real favorite.  We walked logs and ate berries and by this time, I had my niece convinced that hiking was fun!



Trees to walk and berries to eat!

 

We had to recross the parking lot to head into the oak savanna.  I love that the oak savanna is being restored in so many of the parks I frequent, because for me the view of an oak with crooked, winding branches in the midst of grasses and blue sky, is sublime.

Edward T. Owen created this park in an attempt to save some natural space from the developing and sprawling city of Madison.  Good thing too, because the city has spread beyond and is now completely connected to the city of Middleton.  In this picture you can see the park is located on a hill and off in the distance is the skyline of the university.

We followed the trail, enjoying some of the best coneflowers I had seen all summer.  The bees and butterflies seemed to agree!  This was one of those warm July days with the amazing clouds floating through a pure blue sky.

We veered off into an area that included some type of creek or run off combination and some housing, but we were unsure where we were.  We decided to walk the creek.  This was especially fun and a bit of a challenge.  We found some deeper pools within the creek and here actual goldfish or koi were abundant!  I was unable to get them photographed, unfortunately, so you will have to take my word for it.

We wandered up an embankment, still lost and found ourselves on a street!  So, we reversed our course and found our way back to the oak savanna.  I found a stand of 5-6 oak trees and just revelled in the beauty of the branches, the sky blue between the branches and the sun shining brightly through the dark boughs.  My niece was getting tired of the adventure at this point and was not appreciative of the oak savanna and its beauty.

The neighborhood surrounding Owen Conservancy is lucky to have such a gem in their midst!