Lexington Parks - Preston’s Springs

Preston's Springs Park (1937 Dunkirk Dr.)

Location -  near Valley Park and McConnell Springs, between Versailles Rd and Old Frankfort Pike

Playground? No

Trails? yes, unpaved

This park is kind of random -- there's a historical marker and a grassy area between a church and a house that leads to the park. There's a bit of trash around, especially at the beginning, but we enjoyed romping around the trails for awhile. We had been at Valley Park, which kind of connects to this one. We had met a family geocaching in Valley Park, but they turned back when they realized that they couldn't access the geocache from where they were.  We later saw them at this park, too.

Here's where the spring comes out of the cave:

Heading down to the creek area...

Lots of vines to climb and swing on...

This is where Cooper became a monkey swinging on the vine. When we got home, I told my husband that Cooper stayed at the park and we brought a monkey home with us. The "ooh-ooh aah-aah" continued all afternoon.

I was mesmerized with this bright green! Isn't it beautiful? It almost doesn't look real. Everything was so brown and dead, but man, that green was vibrant!

Exploring some pathways...

Colson loves picking up rocks to throw in the creek.

Picnic at the end!

I will say that there was a situation that made me uncomfortable, but it may have just been a fluke. While in the middle of our hike, we heard some dogs barking and then realized that they were coming toward us. It's pretty rare around here to see dogs off their leash (except in the enclosed dog parks). There was no owner in sight. I'm not a dog person, and these seemed like especially mean dogs -- a German shepherd and a bulldog. Carter was on a different part of the trail with Calvin (who is terrified of dogs but later said that if he saw them again, he'd fight them with his hands). I was holding Cooper and holding Colson's hand. They got closer but stopped before being in "striking distance." The song that came to mind as I was praying and praising was "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about that name..."  Soon after that, they turned around and went back the way they came. It took awhile for my heart to return to a normal pattern.  With all that said, we will probably go back because we didn't make it all the way to the end of the park, and I'd like to explore more.

(Note: We have visited 40+ parks in Lexington since the beginning of Covid. These are not meant to be extensive reviews but more a record of our experiences. Eventually I will add hyperlinks to all the blog entries here)