We’re back in Springfield, OH! This time around, we visited at the start of autumn, when both the temperatures and the leaves were starting to drop. With its wide open spaces and huge variety of native trees turning red, orange and yellow on their own intrinsic calendars, fall in Ohio is spectacular. If you find yourself in Springfield at this time of year, you might want to take a tour of Snyder Park. Just take care to stay alert.
In Springfield, one of the best places to witness the annual changing of colors is Snyder Park. Long and winding, hemming close to the banks of Buck Creek, you can walk for a long time underneath massive trees, and if you’re lucky, you might spot a groundhog, a beaver, or even a deer.
With its downtown location and gorgeous trails, Snyder Park should be a super-popular place to enjoy the great outdoors. Unfortunately, though, it’s primarily used by cars taking a shortcut to avoid the city’s traffic lights. This is a real problem, and a deadly one: the roads which cut through the park don’t have any speed bumps, and we’ve seen SUVs zipping through at 50mph. Through a park! In fact, shortly after we arrived in Springfield, a driver crashed into a tree in the exact area I take a daily walk. Rescue services found the driver unconscious on the scene, and he would later die in the hospital.
Speed bumps would help, but I would recommend to city officials that they close one of the Snyder Park roads and turn it into a walking path, exclusively for pedestrians, bikers and roller skaters. And ATVs should be totally forbidden. I mean, come on! But traffic isn’t the only unfortunate thing about Snyder Park, as it’s also a favorite haunt of some very shady characters. In fact, whenever I mention to a Springfield native that I take walks in Snyder Park, I see their eyebrows raise in suspicion. Like: why would I go there? What am I up to?
And I can’t disagree. There are some creepy people hanging around the park. Many people seem to drive in, pull their car over, and then just sit there, doing … well, I’m not sure. They’re just sitting in their cars, possibly drinking? I’ve noticed tons of empty, plastic liquor bottles laying on the ground. The majority of people walking down Snyder Park Road seem to be homeless.
While I was taking the above picture of a mushroom, I had a weird encounter. I was crouched down, and noticed out of the corner of my eye that someone was approaching me from behind. When I turned around, he quickly asked me if I had some change on me. I can’t be positive he was sneaking up on me, but it was scary.
None of this is really the fault of the park itself, I suppose. But tax money goes into this place, and the city has a responsibility to make it a safe place that everyone can enjoy. Despite the danger, I still find Snyder Park a nice place to unwind in nature. That’s especially true during the autumn, when the colors are almost amazing enough to distract you from all the creeps and speeding trucks. Almost.
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