Walking Through Autumn: Edwin Warner Park, Nashville, TN

The Susanne Warner Bass Learning Center

Edwin Warner Park is one of the best places to hike in Nashville.

It is south of Old Hickory Blvd at the intersection of Highway 100
in SW Nashville and has 625 acres of beautiful forested landscape
with 6 great hiking trails.

Click the sites below for information.

Click here for Information about the Warner Parks

Click here to see a detailed map of Edwin Warner Park
with a description of the hiking trails.

Today, I decided to take a figure 8 double loop.
I took the Nature Loop (yellow), then the Hungry Hawk Trail (purple)
up to the Observation Platform, then down to the Natchez Trace
and back to the Nature Center (see map below).

This is a small section of the E.Warner Park map.

Click here to see a detailed map of Edwin Warner Park

If you face the Learning Center this little pond ecosystem is
to the left, only a few yards away.

Broadleaf Arrowhead or Duck Potato
Its tuberous roots can be eaten raw or cooked.

Arrowhead flowers

Minnows swimming beside Spirogyra, an algae.

This is the main trailhead located near the pond.

You will soon come to this point where you will cross the
Natchez Trace, the main trail which runs along the creek.

Turkeytail fungus decomposing the
lower part of a small tree trunk.

Cross the Natchez Trace and get on the Nature Loop,
which has yellow markers (see map).

Turn right here, just follow the yellow arrows.

A Skipper searching for the nectar from
a Pale Touch-me-not.

Continue on the "yellow trail" and take a short break on the
bridge...take a minute to observe and listen.
Turning left will put you on the Harpeth Woods Trail, which you can try on another day.

Click here to see a detailed map of Edwin Warner Park

The flower of a Leafy Elephant's Foot.

Now, you're descending back toward
the Natchez Trace.

Squirrel with food.

Take it nice and slow, looking for plants, animals, and fungi.

The small flowers of Snakeroot.
A close-up, below.

Snakeroot

You're winding down to the Trace.

Cross this road and continue on the Nature Loop.

The circle-of-life...dead trees returning to the soil
for the plants to absorb, thanks to the fungi.
The fungus is called Turkey Tail. The main part of the fungus
is in the wood decomposing it.

You're approaching the creek that you crossed earlier.

Across the bridge is the Natchez Trace...turn right.

This Trace runs parallel to Highway 100, which is to the left.

This is where you started. Now, you will make another loop, but it will be on the east side
this time, heading toward the Amphitheater (see map).

Click here to see a detailed map of Edwin Warner Park

About 200 yards from the sign is this neat little
outdoor Amphitheater.

Just continue the walk and you'll be on the Hungry Hawk Trail,

which goes along field edges (below),

Gulf Fritillary butterfly!

Ironweed

and a Bird Blind, where you can take a break and try

to identify as many birds as you can.

You can see the Bird Blind in the background.

A view through the Bird Blind.

This downed tree is being recycled by the Lichen.

A lichen is actually two organisms living together.

The algae provides food for the lichen, and the

fungus provides water, plus a home for the algae.

Continue on the Hungry Hawk Trail and you'll come to this point.

Turn right and go up the hill to see the Observation Platform.

See the map, below.

Click here to see a detailed map of Edwin Warner Park

Thin-leaved Coneflower (Rudbeckia triloba)

Take a break here to observe and listen.

A Desmodium species (Tick Trefoil).

Tick Trefoil flowers.
(Its seedpods will stick to you like ticks)

These leaves belong to a Sassafras tree.
They have leaves with 3 shapes: most of their leaves
have 3 lobes, many have 1 lobe, and a few have
a mitten shape (2 lobes, top right).
If you scratch the twig, it smells like lemons.

After your break go back down the hill and when you get to

the sign (Observation Platform) just continue straight down the hill

to the Natchez Trace.