Swope Park

It's deep Fall now in Kansas City, the leaves have turned brown and brittle, clogging the curbs and cluttering the sidewalks. Some trees are completely bare and a lot more are getting there. The grass is still green though as afternoon highs still linger in the upper-50's. For the urban naturalist in Kaycee, no better spot exists to monitor these changes in the seasons than the Swope Park Glades in East Kansas City. Many of you are probably familiar with Swope Park and its famous attractions: The Zoo, Starlight Theater, the huge stone shelter houses, two golf courses, the lagoons, the soccer fields, the swimming pool, the baseball diamonds, the Lakeside Nature Center and the frisbee golf course. But my favorite features of the 1,769-acre park are the glades and walking trails that traverse through them. (Although the Blue River Glade are not technically part of Swope Park, they are close enough, and for the purpose of cohesion I've lumped it together with Rocky Glade.)
It has been claimed that Swope Park is the second largest municipal park in the United States behind New York City's Central Park. I've also heard claims for third largest behind Central Park and Philadelphia's Farimount Park. Wikipedia claims that the park is actually the 29th largest municipal park in land mass, which really could wound the pride of Kaycee boosters. I know for certain that Los Angeles's Griffith Park contains 4,217 acres within its boundaries, including a zoo, a planeterium and the Greek Theater.
Size aside, Swope Park is unique for the wild ecosystems it provides urban hikers. Ecosystems like the limestone glades at Blue River and Rocky Glades, two of the northernmost occurences of such ecosystems in Missouri. Limestone glades are much more common in the Ozarks in which wildflowers like Indian Paintbrush and pale purple indigo bloom.
From the KC Wildlands' website www.kcwildlands.org:

"Gnarled chinquapin oaks nearly 300 years old sit atop slab-like outcroppings of Bethany Falls limestone. A prairie-like flora of grasses and wildflowers provides rich color and texture through most of the year. This community is managed through periodic prescribed burning. The glade is threatened by several exotic plant species, especially shrub honeysuckle."

You'll hear the name shrub honeysuckle a lot if you hang around local conservationists or take part in a Kansas City nature clean-up because these exotic plants spread quickly over and around native flora.


The shrub honeysuckle can be an unfair competitor for light as native saplings suffer under the stifling canopy of the expansive plant. The small red berries which contain the honeysuckle's seeds are eaten by mammals and birds who then transport the seeds over many miles. Other exotic species in the area like Winter creeper and Japanese honeysuckle and native invasive species such as the eastern red cedar, the mulberry and poison ivy all distribute their seeds within berries.

There are limestone cliffs and boulders for climbing and bouldering, and the cliffs offer nice vistas of the wooded creek valley below and other high points in the area, such as the landfill to the west and the cellphone tower to the southeast. If you continue on the trail past the glade areas and along the cliffs, it will eventually lead you to the edge of the Blue River Golf Academy Course and past some old farm equipment buildings. This is probably a good place to turn around because it's a signal you are leaving nature and entering the world of rust, junk and the white trash.
In addition to the glades, there are rich mesic forests and wetlands along Oldham Road which would be worthy of checking out. Rocky Glade is off of Oldham Road also, although this glade isn't as large or advanced in its restoration as the Blue River Glade. If you are heading east on Oldham Road, the Rocky Glade is on your left (North), on top of a south-facing slope after shelter house #7 but before you reach a public-denied access road which takes park employees back to parks and rec buildings and the Camp of the Woods facilities. Blue Glade is accesible off Blue River Rd. south of Oldham/Gregory but north of 85th Street. Look for a trailhead on your left (east) if you are heading south from Gregory.