Hiking in Urban Kansas City...3 places

     There are a plethora of hiking trails in the Kansas City area. Some with an urban appeal and some that take you out of the city while you are still in it. I am only listing three for now but I will add some more later.
    The first is the Trolley Trail. It goes from south Waldo to the Plaza area in Kansas City. It used to be the trolley line for Kansas City and is maintained by the Kansas City transportation system. I don't have any photos of this one posted because I use it a lot for transport. A lot of coffee shops, grocery stores, bike shops, and the library are located on it but it still has a woodsie feel to it. I will post pictures next time I ride on it.
       The next one I would like to highlight is the Richard Berkly River Front Park. It is maintained, quite nicely, by the City of Kansas City Port Authority. The park borders the Missouri River where you can see the natural side of Kansas City. If you turn the other way you see a very citified park. There was a homeless camp when we went here but other than that it was pretty nice completely paved and short trail. You can also see how they transport gas across the river with pipes, not so pretty but interesting.

   The last piece of nature that I have visited recently is the Discovery Center located off of 47th and Troost. It is ran by the Missouri Conservation Department and highlights the local prairie plants in the area.
    In the visitors center they have examples of local animals as well as other hiking places in the area. Each exhibit has example of the local fauna and what the biome is like. They also had examples and brochures of wild flower gardens that you can do yourself.

    Outside, some of the trails are paved but others are just mulched. There is a small play area for kids and lots of example of prairie plants and local wildlife, for example I saw an albino squirrel and a lot of water fowl.

              This park takes you out of the city. Only a few houses can be seen on the hiking trails and it is so quite that you can hear the birds singing.
    From the Discovery Center there are also trails that take you to the Kauffman Memorial Gardens, not much hiking there but some great examples of plants that change through out the season. The Kauffman Memorial Gardens is ran by Powell Gardens. It doesn't have much hiking, mostly just a paved trail around the garden, but has very well manicured flower gardens, with some volunteers popping up here and there. It is very sunny with very little shade.