Dragons, Dogs and Bears (Oh My)

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Dragons, Dogs and Bears (Oh My)Hidden Gems

Remember that abandoned house down the street with the light flickering in the attic? Can you still feel the mud oozing over your boots when you first rambled though an unmarked trail?

Adults living in a metro area of 7.4 million souls might think such experiences exist only in books or cloudy memories. If so, they are wrong.

Say Yes to Dallas has compiled this list of places – both living, dead and spirit-infused – that urban explorers should visit, if they really what they want to be considered such.

We knowingly excluded well-known or larger gems (like the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens and Fort Worth Water Gardens) because, well … they’re not exactly hidden. Given those parameters, we’ve aggregated a list of destinations that deserve to be included in your adventurer bucket list, and which will likely turn to halcyon memories with the passage of time. Entry is free, unless otherwise noted.

  • The Great Trinity Forest

    Address: 6500 South Great Trinity Forest Way, Dallas, Texas 75217*

    Note the asterisk at the address above. That’s because this place is so wild, even Google has trouble pegging it with an accurate location. That address belongs to the Trinity River Audubon Center, one of 12 destinations and multiple trailheads within a 6,000-acre plot of land in Southern Dallas. Much of the forest is a landfill that nature (and the City of Dallas) has reclaimed. Gear up if you’re planning a deep exploration. Far into the forest, in a place called Big Swamp, naturalists have reported lairs of water moccasins, snorting feral hogs, hand-size spiders and chest-high poison ivy.

    The Great Trinity Forest >

  • Meadows Foundation Dog Park

    Address: 2917 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75204 

    The Swiss Avenue Historic District is renowned as a showplace for early 20th Century architecture, from Prairie, Craftsman to Italian Renaissance. Within the district lies our hidden gem for dog lovers:  a place known to some just as the “Swiss Avenue Dog Park.” This green space, owned and operated by the Meadows Foundation, encourages users to abide by their own code of conduct: Bring your own water, be sure to clean up, and owners of small or leaping dogs must be mindful that the park’s fence can be compromised, especially by escape artists.

    Meadows Foundation Dog Park >

  • Dragon Park

    Address: 3520 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas, Texas 75219

    Dragons are nestled in the green space a few blocks from Dallas’ exhaustively traveled Katy Trail. Facebookers have described this place as a “little oasis in the midst of a major city.” Aside from the (of course) dragon, an archangel issues a clarion call, and griffin (winged lions) stand guard at the park’s entrance. Though the address is listed on Cedar Springs, it’s best to enter from Hood Street.

    Dragon Park >

  • Mysterious Teddy Bear Sculptures in Lakeside Park

    Address: 4601 Lakeside Drive, Highland Park, Texas 75205

    On Christmas Day 1995, the Harlan Crow family donated several larger-than-life Teddy Bear statues to the town of Highland Park, where they remain to this day. Sure, there’s a waterfall, lily pads and a rolling creek. But it always comes back to the Teddy Bears. The largest bear stands 8-feet-5 inches tall, and smiles and stares vacantly forward, as a cub perches on its left hind leg. What are you looking at, Giant Teddy Bear?  Don’t answer. This has gone far enough.

    Lakeside Park >

  • Prairie Creek Park

    Address: 200 block, Fall Creek Drive, Richardson, Texas, 75080

    Aside from being a Rough Rider and taking some hill in Cuba, Teddy Roosevelt was renowned for taking friends, family and even the French ambassador on scampers through the brambles. We’d like to think that Roosevelt would feel right at home in Prairie Creek Park, with its large, sun-covered stones, covered bridge, fields of wildflowers and a mossy waterfall. “Oh, that lovely, relaxing waterfall,” writes Yelper Ali G. “What more can I say? The beautiful patch of wildflowers is enough to make me visit.”

    Prairie Creek Park >

  • Chandor Gardens

    Address: West Lee Street, Weatherford, Texas 76086

    Hidden gems have fascinating backstories, and Chandor Gardens is no exception. In this tale, a world-renowned portrait painter once determined to create a living work of art within the confines of his Weatherford, Texas, estate. Englishman Douglas Granville Chandor, famous for his paintings of some of the 20th century’s most pivotal figures developed a cactus-strewn cow pasture as a showplace. Chandor died before he could paint a combined portrait of the “Big Three” – Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin – to celebrate their second meeting, which would have occurred in Yalta. Admission is $5 for adults and teens, free for children 12 and under.

    Chandor Gardens >

  • Marie Gabrielle Restaurant and Gardens

    Address: 2728 N Harwood Street, Dallas, Texas 75201

    Another example of urban green-space, Marie Gabrielle hides in the shadows of foliage, and can be easily missed. An English garden and reflecting pools often serve as makeshift picnic spots for patrons of Marie Gabrielle Restaurant, but many people visit or happen upon this place out of pure curiosity.  Like a woodland sprite, much of Marie Gabrielle’s charm lies in her seclusion, and in the delight that comes in discovering her. Reopening soon.

    Marie Gabrielle >

  • Dallas Heritage Village: Genteel Dallas

    Address: 1515 S Harwood Street, Dallas, Texas 75215

    More than 100 years ago, before Interstate 30 spliced Dallas in half, the Cedars neighborhood was a premier destination filled with Victorian homes. Every week, mesdames and messieurs would depart their mansions, stroll past greenhouses to hear concerts at the neighborhood bandstand. Dallas Heritage Village has recreated this experience, right down to a reconstructed plantation-style (haunted?) mansion known as Millermore. Side note: Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus fame was born here. Second sidenote: Bring your wallet.

    Dallas Heritage Village >

  • Thanksgiving Chapel

    Address: 1627 Pacific Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75201

    The streetscape outside Chapel of Thanksgiving is similar to any other urban center; the light rail’s bell clangs, traffic jams, and office dwellers scurry to or from wherever they generally scurry. Amidst all this rises an off-white conical form that looks suspiciously like a misshaped serving of vanilla soft-serve. Walk up the ramp most afternoons and enter. Inside, a ramp carries visitors upward, into a silent chapel, whose ceiling is an upward swirl of stained glass. Listen closely and you might hear the low trickle of the water feature outside. Or is that just peace filling your mind?

    Thanksgiving Chapel >

Visit our Hidden Gems page for more of the Dallas Region’s best kept secrets.