The fourth stop on the 10 Free Places tour is the Murfreesboro Greenway. The Greenway goes all through Murfreesboro and has a large number of trailheads with some portions of the trail being better for some things than others. For example the Cason Trail trailhead is used by bikers a lot and has a playground at the trailhead and a dog park. The Thompson Lane trailhead follows the river. The Overall trailhead has access to a lot of creeks and ends up in a hub of bridges to take you to several different trailheads. The Greenway is good for kids since there are a lot of playgrounds, water, and you can decide how far you actually want to walk.
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I've talked about Stones River Battlefield before, but this is my third stop on the 10 Free Places tour. The national park houses a nice little museum about the battle in the ranger station and also has good bathrooms, which is why it's generally my go to for walking in the city. Keep in mind there's not a lot of shade and once you start out on one of the park loops, it's going to be over a mile to get back to the parking lot. The park offers a lot of free and educational programs that are good for adults and kids. It's a good place to walk for exercise and for older children especially. A lof of the park has paved trails, so if your family is into biking this is a great place.
The second stop on my 10 Free Places tour, The Fountains is a shopping and eating complex with a small green space and light up splash pad. While the place can get pretty crowded when busy, it's a great way to relax on a not so busy evening. Let the kids run in the splash pad while you kick back on the green space.
There are also a couple good restaurants like Just Love Coffee and Burger Republic in the area in addition to the fantastic Soda Bar for desserts.
The Boro Pulse recently ran a feature on "10 Fun, Free, Family Friendly Places in Murfreesboro". While I don't have kids, I can definitely check out whether I WOULD take kids to any of these places and what you might find or need to be prepared for.
This week I went to Murfree Spring Wetlands, located behind the parking lot of the Discovery Center on SE Broad St. It featues a lot of boardwalks through the wetlands. Get ready for no shade. There is a small playground at the trailhead and bathrooms (which I think are pandemic closed), but once on the boardwalk beware of the heat. Wetlands, while fascinating, don't produce a lot of shade in this area. There are a lot of kiosks explaining different things in the nature area. Some of them don't work (the WGNS one in particular let me down as you'll see in the video). I saw a lot of dragonflies and fish and one very active turtle, but the heat might have kept a lot of the other wildlife somewhere cooler.
The Discovery Center has a wetlands walk through right behind the building that allows you to stroll through the cattails. All of this is free since it's outside of the Discovery Center itself. Plenty of families were out and about even in the heat.
Pinson Mounds in Jackson, TN is a unique stop. The park features a large number of prehistoric Native American mounds that seem to have been used for festivals and observation. The park museum is housed within one of the mounds and the park offers trails to visit the other mounds with an observation deck on the tallest.
Located in Jackson, Tn, the Casey Jones home and Railroad Museum celebrates the life and folklore of the famous engineer. While the museum is interesting mainly for those with some fascination with trains, the house and replica engine are a fun diversion.
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AuthorA librarian who likes to travel and experience life. CategoriesArchives
June 2022
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