Caldwell Nature Center

This is my favorite place to go for a trail run. Just a few yards from the road you find yourself in a stand of huge old growth trees. A smaller preserve with many connected trails, it makes for a good short hike. It’s not too far off 75, and there’s plenty of parking. Usually I am the only one there. Some of the trails are in need of repair, but are marked as closed. There is a good mix of steep hills and flatter trails depending on how intense you like your hike. I have never seen any of the shady happenings that other people have reported, but I’d take normal precautions and lock your car and hide any valuables. Overall this place is a hidden gem with beautiful old growth forests not far from the city center.

The nature part of the trail was nice. The path is fairly wide and there are railroad tie steps for most of the elevation changes.
Unfortunately it just seems shady. Multiple cars pulled in waited and then left without getting out. They did not look like nature enthusiasts and where I’m from that screams sketchy. The parking lot looks like a place where questionable things happen. I wouldn’t recommend single females go here.

Caldwell Nature Center rocks!
It is conveniently located near to where I work and it is where I practice my trail running. Running here is perfect for the trail running experience! First, the park is not heavily traveled. The location is off the main path and few visitors stop to use the park. Second, there are a few miles of walking trails. There are several walking loops, a meadow trail, a creek trail, and a trail running along the Mill Creek. For this reason, I can combine the various trails to have 3+ miles of distance. Thirdly, the park is completely shaded. The trails are located in dense wooded area and keeps a lower temperature during the summer. Fourthly, there are many features including running creeks, rolling hills and obstacles like fallen trees, rocks, wooden steps and walking bridges. Lastly, my favorite think about this park is the trails are all mulched. Walking and running on the soft surface is great for the legs.
I keep coming back to Caldwell because of the wooded, diverse landscape, changing elevations and many features. I also like the parks’s indoor nature center, picnic area and amphitheatre. I will bring my family here because I do feel safe.

So since my review in March of 2012, two incidents have occurred at Caldwell.
1. This happened in late 2012 probably. I got out of my car to find a woman giving a man a blow job in the car right next to me. Charming. There were school buses in the parking lot, that’s how bold these people were.
2. Last week, I went back for the first time since incident #1. As we were leaving, we came around the corner and found ourselves face to face with a man and a woman having sex on the trail. Didn’t acknowledge us or anything, they just kept on going. Single most awkward experience of my life.
Both occurrences were in the middle of the day on Saturdays/​Sundays. So while the trails are very nice, this place is ridiculously seedy. I definitely wouldn’t bring kids here.

A good mix of low impact and challenging hills. Some trails were closed due to hazardous condition. It was a fun experience and I’ll definitely be back. Saw plenty of families with small children.

Don’t be fooled, it doesn’t look like much from the road… in fact, it doesn’t really look like much when you start hiking it, but this is a great park with far more extensive trails than it looks like it could hold! We hiked for about two hours.
It’s a pretty easy up and down hike on the main trails. There are numerous smaller trails that lead down to the creek or ravines that are a bit more overgrown and rugged. You can hear the sounds of civilization here, particularly passing trains and the adjacent baseball fields, but it’s so muted it’s actually soothing. It looks like the park sustained some damage recently. There were a lot of uprooted or snapped trees throughout the park and a handful of the trails were closed, presumably due to downed trees. We did follow one trail only to encounter stairs obliterated by a felled tree, but they’ve done a fantastic job of clearing the majority of the paths.
A few cool things along the trail. Close to the overlook farthest from the nature center there are a number of trees that decades of park goers have proclaimed their love or «here-​ness» on. There is a path leading down to a small creek under a large bridge on the main trail… it’s worth checking out. There is a fire pit and amphitheater, both of which were popular the Wednesday night we were there. This seems to be a popular off leash location for pups too. I think 90% of the people we met on the trails had a dog in tow.

Great park with lots of trails in the middle of the city, not far to go, lots of bridges to cross small streams. come have a picnic if you don’t feel like leaving the city! It’s a great spot.