Cranes Roost just sounds like a fun name. This place is in the middle of a lot of stuff, so it is quite busy all day long. It also happens to be a loop which I do love that kind of trail. I was not quite sure what to expect from just looking at the map but I'm quite glad I gave this one a try.
I ended up going quite early in the morning and on a colder day. I feel that was a bit of a mistake and I'll get into that in a bit. It seemed many people before going off to work in the area hit this place up as a way to get some walking in before going on with the rest of their day.
This place was quite lively with all the birds, construction work, lawn care, and yes loads of people everywhere. It's quite well maintained and after hours there are sometimes even events going on that get listed around the park in advance.
The biggest thing I like about it is it being a ~1.1-mile loop. While that might sound rather short the great thing with a loop of this distance is you can always go one more round till you no longer feel up for it.
This ended up working great with a group of people and everything being at different levels of exercise. There are restrooms and ample places to sit from stairs to benches. I’m a bit shocked more people were not here.
It is quite an inviting place to go to. It’s almost like a little oasis in the middle of a concrete jungle. Many large buildings can be seen off in the direction as you walk around the loop that goes around and even over the water.
Behind a bit of the mall area, there is a bit of parking there and a few other places as well. Several ramps are going down into the loop area themselves. Give a nice view of the water and some of the surrounding area as you make your way down.
This is also just a place for walking, jogging, and running. No bikes, scooters, or rollerblades allowed. I rather welcomed not having someone on a bike almost run me over speeding past me without saying they were passing as so happens in other parks and trails that allow bikers to be on.
The biggest thing is just enjoying the different views of the water. When I was here it was clear they were setting up some kind of event. They had some floating platforms they were working on that I can only assume they sometimes shoot off fireworks from.
At the time it looked like they were setting up some kind of band to playing in the future. They even had signs around the place for a number to call to arrange for large gatherings and hosting events here.
It seems like a lot of the time as you were walking around this loop there was something new to draw in your eyes. Some areas were more heavily sculpted than others. This photo gives you quite an overview of the place from the walkway over the water to having little areas to explore as you move about.
I think it’s great they have built a nature area like this right in the middle of things. I for one can’t stand concrete jungles. Even having something like this I just could not put up with living in a larger city. Just far too many sounds and people. At least here you could hear and enjoy nature.
In my first loop around I had quite a lot of fun just stopping every so many steps. There are just so many little details to take in from rock-covered shorelines in some areas to the flowers and bushes used in others.
The interesting part of this place and where I learned I did not go at the most ideal time happens when you leave the loop on the ground and start walking over a massive bridge that takes up quite a lot of the loop.
You might notice the walkway over the water looks a bit wet and slippery and it sure was. The more loops I went around this trail the slipperier it got. I also noticed that fewer and fewer people were starting to be out here as well.
My best guess is the sun evaporated the water making it rise. It was however a cooler day, and the bridge was cold. So, you would get the water condensing on the walkway. Thankfully there is railing all around this thing as the area you get back to dry land is a bit of a ramp depending on which way you are going.
Needless to say, the mystery when I was looking at it before coming out here wondering why it showed the trail going over the water is solved! It seems like quite a strange way to go about things. While it was interesting, I perhaps would have liked the loop just to have gone around the entire edge of the waterway the best it could.
While walking around one of the bends in the loop I noticed what appeared to be quite a strange-looking sculpture of some kind. It was rather puzzling at the time with the way the sunlight was hitting it and me having no clue what it was supposed to be.
Then I had that “ahh ha” movement hit once I was aligned in a way, I could understand what I was looking at. A crane possibly feeding or playing with a smaller crane. Quite a clever way to take the name of a place and create something that fits so well in it.
I rather looked forward to this piece of art every time I took another loop around this place. While there are quite a lot of little this was perhaps the one, I enjoyed the most. I have a feeling the more you go here the more little things you realize you did not notice on your other trips out.
There was also quite a lot of wildlife here in terms of birds. Now they do have “do not feed” signs posted all over the place. Naturally, I noticed a few people were tossing the bird's bread.
They even have a few cranes. I feel it is strange to name a place after one without having a few. Many of them were basking on the sunny side of the shoreline.
Final Thoughts
This was quite a fun and interesting thing to find in the middle of where it was. I ended up doing a couple of loops around the trail before deciding it was getting a little too slippery to want to keep going. Not quite sure when the best time to go would be to avoid that issue. It was a nice place to stop even if you don’t have much time.
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.