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Shelby Farms

 

Wolf River (Yellow) Trail Out, Blue/White Trail Combo Back

 

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

 

 

This great park lies right in the midst of the western suburbs of Memphis, Tennessee (Shelby Farms website here).  It’s a great resource for the area because while I'm sure it's not like this all the time, many of the nastiest and dumbest things that I have ever seen on the road have happened in or around this city.  If you live out here and need some de-stressing this would be a great place to come.  In fact, I found a couple other places right around this general area to hike as well – the Germantown Greenway and a short 15 minute hike (perfect for lunch time or for the kids) in the Riverwoods State Nature Area.  More about it and other areas here. 

 

On this particular day I had at first set out to kayak the Wolf River.  Yet, after driving around for quite a while and not finding a put-in, I found myself in the trailhead parking lot of this Wolf River Trail.  "Well, if I can't paddle then hiking would be the next best thing!"  I thought.  It looked like the current of the river was pretty strong anyway and, since I only paddle up rivers that I’m unfamiliar with, I might not have gotten very far in the first place.  I pulled on a pair of jeans over the bathing suit I’d been wearing and headed out on a path which led down toward the river.

 

 

There seem to be 3 main color coded trails out here, each about 4 miles long.  The Yellow Trail generally leads along the riverbank while the blue path meanders a lot more and is further inland.  A third, the White Trail, then runs even further inland and branches off from the blue on the western end before cutting directly back to the river.  In doing so it bisects both the yellow and blue trails.  I followed the yellow out and a combination of the blue and white on the way back.

 

 

Among the first things I noticed starting out were the lush shades of green as I got closer to the river, and there were also some little spur paths which led right down to the water.  Speaking of which, the bridges I crossed that went over the Wolf River tributary streams today (I think there were 3 of them) were pretty elaborate.  They looked more like the kind of steel bridges you see for vehicles to span rivers.

 

I should also mention that some of the paths out here are multi-use while others are meant for hiking only.  Of the people I saw today most were either bikers or joggers.  I recall seeing 8 of the former and 3 of the latter in the 4 hours I was here.  Anyway, one of the bikers I met told me that I had been really close to a river put-in such as I'd been searching for.  There was one right in the park!  He also mentioned an outfitter that offered canoe and kayak rentals further up the river.

 

Anyway, before I’d even had time to fully acclimate to my surroundings I was put on notice as to how much the scenery was going to vary today.  I passed through a short section which had been cut right through the forest and it appeared to extend all the way down to the river.  In fact, it looked like it might still be farmed.  I’d pass by some more areas like this later in the day.

 

Re-entering the woods, I came across a great spot at which there was a nice park bench set up by the river.

 

 

 

…and check out this beetle I nearly stepped on – it was huge!

 

 

As I continued to meander along I just kind of immersed myself in things as I lost all track of time taking pictures of the river.  There are just so many pleasant scenes out here!  Soon I came to a somewhat confusing point at which it looked like you could go about 5 different directions!  I kept as far right as possible knowing that the river was in that direction, soon finding that the trail ended at what looked like a road they were in the process of building. 

 

Anyway, I went back to the last intersection and this time followed the blue path which kept going a little further before it ended at yet a different road.  This road, in turn, ended at the river which was now directly to my left.  Here I found my boat ramp!  The Walnut Grove Bridge goes over the river here and it looks like you can park under it,  The problem today, however, was that the boat ramp was totally mired in river mud.  I would have had to walk my kayak through about 5 yards of it, maybe a foot deep - and this was the kind of mud that if you stepped down into it you'd lose a shoe!

 

I turned and walked the other direction on the road to see what I could see…  Not much.  I was walking almost directly along Walnut Grove Road, a pretty main thoroughfare here.  I stopped at a point which looked like a kind of dirt bike track and headed back to the trails, getting back on the Blue Trail with the intention of following it back to the car.  As I began I barely missed stepping on this toad…

 

 

 

I’m constantly amazed by the incredible intricacy of little plants!  Life sure does form some awesome patterns!

 

 

As I mentioned I had been content to just take the Blue Trail all the way back, yet when I intersected the White Trail I decided that I just had to check it out because a sign here indicated that it would pass through the Lucious Burch, Jr. Natural Area.  Maybe the path would connect back up with the Blue Trail and maybe not, but I couldn’t resist.  This particular area was supposed to be open only to hikers and it first led me through some of the densest area yet along a little ridge top.  Later, I found myself skirting alongside a little lake.  I’ll tell ya…  Lakes, rivers, farmland…  There sure is quite a bit out here!

 

 

Passing the lake, I came to another trail intersection where the path cut directly north to south.  This White Trail will actually lead you right to the river if you follow it to the right, but I first went north (left) a little way to check it out.  In doing so I almost immediately came to a point where there was another wide open area of farmland on either side of me and 2 more trails – one leading east and one west.  Figuring that this could get a bit confusing I headed back the other way!  I’d get some more nice farmland views soon…

 

When I met up with the Green Trail which went over one of those metal bridges I talked about, I turned left onto it and soon the forest took on a completely different feel.  At one point I even seemed to go right into what looked like a green cave!

 

 

In yet another location I got some more of those great farmland views I was talking about earlier.  This trail goes directly along the back line of one of these and it’s almost as if you’re walking through it.

 

 

All of this provided for a nice grand finale to the hike and I was soon right back where I’d started.  This was an odd feeling today.  I wouldn’t say that it was anticlimactic exactly, but it seemingly brought to a simple conclusion something which had seemed to be quite a bit more complicated.  Perhaps it was that, or perhaps it was just a kind of disappointment that a pleasant experience was over.

 

What a great park I might have missed if I had gone paddling today!

 

 

DIRECTIONS:

 

 

This park is in the northwest sector of the Germantown Road/Wolf River Boulevard intersection, and the entrance to it is on the north side of the bridge over the Wolf River on Germantown Road.  Head west on this and it’ll immediately dead end.  Go left and follow it all the way all back to the parking lot.  The trails start on the south side of the parking lot behind the port-a-john.  I took a right to start this one.