One of My Favorite Places in the World

Leonard Springs Nature Park is a place that is really special to me. It's like a secret hiding place. It's a place I still miss today because I've never found a place like it. I feel that this is one of the best things about my hometown.. There were tons of hiking trails and nature parks all around that were either in town or just outside of town. And most of them have some type of story big or small. Leonard Springs is one of those places. Although it's history is not that interesting to some, I actually found it pretty interesting.

I found this place by accident actually. I was just driving down some country roads one day and decided to take a turn onto a road I've never been on and see where it would take me. To my surprise I found a little parking lot hidden behind a cow farm all enclosed with trees and shrubs... I parked, got out of the car, read the sign to the right, and decided to take a walk down this strange place I've never even heard of. These are not pictures from that walk its self but they give you at least a little bit of a picture of this favorite place of mine.. I truly do miss it too. I took a lot of these pictures at two distinct seasons.. Summer and Winter about 3 years ago when I first got my camera. The winter ones are the very first pics I took on it.

This cave is kind of in between the stair case you have to go down.. There's a platform and everything to observe inside the cave.

This is what the spring looked like in the winter.

I use to lay on my back next to the spring and just think about everything... This place was my solace. If there wasn't a lot of rain that week, I could usually sit or lay on a sheet of limestone next to the spring. You could see how through time the spring had carved down the main part it flowed over and the part I would sit..

This is it. lol It was really cold that day.. brr too cold to do anything but walk around and take pictures! brr February!

This is what I would see when I would lay there... It was always nice to watch the change in the trees. I took both of these images in different seasons..

Passing over the spring you wander through a trail to this awesome view of the wetlands...

There's a little observation platform I was sitting on. This was the only view you really had through this curtain of trees and shrub. It was awesome.. I couldn't hear anything but nature. Another great place to sit. I would always feel like I was in a lost world and some dino was going to run out of the bushes at any moment.

This is actually the same view as above... crazy what a lil foliage will do.

I don't remember exactly where I took this, but it wasn't too far from the above area.. another opening I think...

When you walk far enough, you can either go left and start making the curve around or go right... I went right. I was walking on top of the dam. There were trees and shrubs blocking my view on both sides until I got to the end of the dam... What a view. It's of the whole wet lands I was just beside...

Winter view...

This is just a pic of the view I had before you look over the dam to your right... not much. lol

Here's some pics of some butterflies I found... they didn't show up well but they're still there.