Santa Fe Trail - Dallas, TX (part 2)

Here are the rest of my photos from my first trip to the Santa Fe Trail:

If you're heading toward White Rock Lake from Lindsley Park, you'll notice a clearing to your right (before the fences begin). I was curious about what lay beyond this natural "doorway." Lo and behold...

... it's a beautiful field of wild grasses, trees, and oh yeah - throw in a quaint pond to make it just perfect.

Heading back to the path, another work of art.

The Santa Fe bridge over Garland Rd. right before it forks into East Grand and Gaston.

From the bridge: there's East Grand with Gaston veering off to the right.

Santa Fe Trail - Dallas, TX

For whatever reason, I've been obsessed with the Santa Fe Trail since hearing about it a few months ago. I think the idea of a nature trail running through East Dallas (my favorite hipster haven) just sounded awesome. Oh, and it connects White Rock Lake with Deep Ellum you say? Well that's just downright badass.

I finally made it over today... it's good to have some free time after a busy semester. Let me just say - it exceeded my expectations. Big, beautiful, peaceful, and I only saw a little sliver. Here are some pics:

As mentioned in my previous post, I parked at Lindsley Park and walked over to the trail. From here I took the trail East, which then formed a 'V' and kind of looped back up toward White Rock Lake. It was a beautiful stretch. Both sides of the trail were walled-off by huge trees, shrubs, and wild greenery.

Cute signs

I loved this graffiti-encounter while curving North on the trail. Some artistic tags and some nice obscenities.

Love it.

It was an overcast evening, creating a great ambiance.

Hollywood Heights/Santa Monica

On my way to check out the Santa Fe Trail in East Dallas, I happened upon the gorgeous neighborhoods of Hollywood Heights and Santa Monica. Wait...Santa Fe, Hollywood, and Santa Monica? That's a little confusing, but yes, this is still Dallas.

I left my car at Lindsley Park and walked around the block before venturing onto the trail. Here are a few of the sights:

Cute houses everywhere. Giant trees and well-thought-out landscaping.

I want to go to there.

No, you're not in Cali. Hollywood and Santa Monica are also endearing neighborhoods in East Dallas.

Why am I not a trust-fund baby?

Urbanized

(Pssst!... this movie is available to stream on Netflix...)

Today I watched Urbanized - an intriguing, well-made documentary about how urban environments and development affect society and people's lives around the world. It featured both high and low points of urban planning and design.

Some of the high points mentioned:
The High Line in New York City - smart city planners and citizens took advantage of an old forgotten elevated freight line and turned it into a beautiful public park and trail. Since it was built on the freight line, the park is elevated and overlooks the west side of Manhattan.

Bicycle-friendly Copenhagen, Denmark - a vast number of people bike in Copenhagen. The streets are designed so that the bike lanes are inside the line of parked cars. That way, the parked cars serve as a safe barrier between bikers and moving vehicles.

Some of the low points:
Brasilia, Brazil - criticized for being too grand and too disconnected. Brasilia was built in a modern style with large monumental structures. The problem is: they were built too far apart, leading to a total lack of walkability. To get from one monument to the next... just hop in a car.

Phoenix, Arizona - although Phoenix has apparently been criticized as the poster-child of sprawl, I liked that the documentary interviewed a guy who defended the city, saying that while he thought living in a condo was cute, he enjoyed his 2 acre plot of land and pool. I guess it's different strokes for different folks. (We can always bring up the topic of sprawl in Dallas/Fort Worth by the way, and I intend on writing about that.)

Beijing, China - massive, overpopulated, not planned with pedestrians in mind...

Sights around the Design District

While we were creeping around the Design District and soaking up the art, I couldn't help but notice the intriguing atmosphere of the neighborhood...

This was a wild discovery. Near the Dallas Contemporary, on the outskirts of the Design District, was this building... which was more like the shell of a building. You could see straight through where the doorways and windows used to be. I stepped inside one of the doorways, and there was a cute entryway with a full-grown tree. It seemed strangely desolate but undeniably attractive.

Gallery Day in the Design District

Yesterday my wife and I made it over to the Design District - one of Dallas' most unique neighborhoods. The Design District is only a few blocks, yet it's packed to the brim with contemporary art galleries, unique home furnishing & rennovation stores, and a few very creative restaurants.

The art galleries in the Design District are a well-oiled machine. They often partner with each other to showcase their opening receptions on the same night so that patrons can walk from one gallery to another and make a night of it. Every time I've been to their opening receptions, the galleries have been teeming with people.

Gallery Day was more of a relaxed pace than the opening reception nights, but there was still a good crowd out. I saw some of my old favorites like Craighead Green Gallery, Conduit, and PDNB, and experienced some new galleries like Circuit 12 Contemporary, Red Arrow Contemporary, and the huge warehouse space of the Dallas Contemporary. Here are just a few pics from the impressive showing:

Red Arrow Contemporary

Red Arrow Contemporary

Holly Johnson Gallery

Conduit Gallery

Dallas Contemporary - this room had an eerie soundtrack and led to an enclave in the back which housed a black shed--pictured below

Dallas Contemporary

Dallas Contemporary

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Just a quick peek at a beautiful city I've been to a number of times: