Before I begin my first critical review of one of the most popular metroparks in the Toledo area, I must first explain how I analyze each park, individually; and, how I came up with the rating, seen at the bottom of the post.
Each metropark will be analyzed by three major features. The first of which is the trails inside the park. The trails are an integral part of a park, and allow visitors to delve into the forests of Toledo. For this, each park needs to have trails or paths that lead to interesting and beautiful parts of the park that are full of abundent wildlife, but also provide a clean walking, or in some cases, path that a visitor can easily understand. The second feature of a metropark that will be graded is the wildlife itself. This includes the trees in the area, the amount of animal activity, particularly deer and other forest inhabitants. Along with this, the feeling of actually being away from the streets of Toledo is graded. The open fields and accessability to rivers, streams, and ravines is also graded. The last feature that will be looked at is the extra features associated with the park. Each metropark has something unique to call its own whether it be the Erie Canal, a fort, or a manor. These three categories will contribute to the overall value of the park and the 10 star rating that is rewarded at the end of each review.
So onto Wildwood. Located on Central Avenue, in between Corey Rd. and Reynolds, Wildwood is one of the most visited parks in my area. Wildwood is the park I have most frequented; I have been on every trail and attended a Civil War Re-Enactment.
The trails of Wildwood are a great feature of the park. Many runners and dog walkers come here for the easy access to each trail. Not only are they well maintained, but they are easy to follow, with clear trail markers and a large map in the beggining of the park. The red trail, on of the longest takes the walker back into the park and circles around a large ravine that houses a small stream. 
The walk is quite lengthy on the long Red trail, but it is a nice path to take still. The Yellow trail takes you throughout the meadows that, when the flowers are blooming, is quite beautiful. It is a trail that does not have trees overlooking it, so when it is warm out, you may want to avoid it, but it also allows the visitor to look at the forest from afar. Lastly, of the more popular trails is the Blue trail. In my opinion, this is the best trail in Wildwood and could be one of the best trails in Toledo. It takes you back into the ravine and follows it until you come across a boardwalk. The boardwalk is extremely long and allows walkers to look down at the ground below them, sometimes seeing wildlife along the way. The boardwalk ends at a nice viewing spot over a river. There is a bench there that you can sit in and enjoy the calmness of the park. The blue trail combines walkability with beauty, making it one of the Toledo's best paths.
Moving onto the wildlife of Wildwood. As stated before, Wildwood has a large ravine running through it. If the paths were closer to the ravine, you would fall in. That's how close you are to the ravine. The forest itself is very strange and seems almost untouched by human hands. Trees have fallen over all over the place and fall onto other trees that lend support to them. 
It's very nice to see this, because it's naturally what happens. Its generally very leafy in the park, even when it isn't fall, which also contributes to its natural feel. As far as actual animal wildlife, I have only seen one set of deer in Wildwood by a path. It doesn't seem to bother the deer that humans walk by them, though the absence of deer probably means that they avoid the paths in most cases. This absence, along with an unexistance of other animals makes the park very quiet, which is nice, but to see a wild animal is usually a highlight of a trip to a park; so, without that visitors don't get the same visit to Wildwood than what they were expecting. The meshing of this wildlife and the well maintained paths makes Wildwood what it is. It's absolutely one of the best parks in Toledo because of this.
Lastly, we have to talk about that unique quality of the park. In Wildwood's case, it is the Stranahan Manor located near the trailhead. This manor is absolutely huge and fun to visit. Inside, you can see the Stranahan's house and get a little information on the man who was president of Champion Spark Plugs. The most interesting part of the manor is downstairs, where they have windows that produce artificial light to make it seem like they're upstairs as well as the shooting range. Outside of the manor is a garden and front yard with a gazebo leading the walkers to the All Purpose Trail. The garden is well kept with pretty flowers and great architecture. 
The front part of the house is a downhill driveway with green grass and the gazebo. Overall, it may not be the most interesting unique parts of some of the parks in Toledo, but it is a nice break from walking the paths.
Overall, Wildwood is one of the most accesible and fun parks in Toledo. It is at a location that many people live and the ease of the paths keep visitors coming back to it for more. As far as the best, I would say Wildwood has the best path's for running, and an overall great path in the Blue Trail. These two qualities make it one of the top 5 parks in Toledo. The absence of wildlife animals does not hurt the park, as it just makes it much more quiet. In sum, I would give this park a rating of 8 stars out of 10 because of all the excellent things said before. The missing two stars comes from the fact that some parks have that extra something that Wildwood is missing, but, we will get to that in future posts.
I hope this review of Wildwood helped readers choose this park as their visit for whatever day you go there. In the next few months, I am going to go when snow is on the ground, so I can check out the paths for cross-country skiing. I will update about that at a future time. If you want more information on Wildwood or any other Toledo Metropark, please follow this link: http://www.toledometroparks.com and look at all the Toledo Metroparks have to offer.
Next up, a review of the popular Italian restaurant Bravo! at the Westfield Shopping Center as well as another metropark yet to be named.
No comments:
Post a Comment