Cromwell Valley Park

Cromwell Valley Park is a quite large park just a little North East of Towson. It spans all the way from Cromwell Bridge Road to Loch Raven Reservoir. The landscape of the park is constantly hilly, never really reaching a constant flat point. There is one road that goes through the park, with both entry points at different locations of Cromwell Bridge Road. The road that enters from Cromwell Bridge closest to the hiking trails, is lined with large trees on both side for visitors to drive between once they enter. Once out of the car they can make their way to a walking path that leads to a large valley to explore. There is a stream along the right side of this walking path that visitors can go down to view, this stream feeds into the end of
the reservoir. Also along the left side of the walking path, just before reaching the valley entrance, there is an old large stone structure that gives visitors a glimpse into the history of the park. The valley is filled with overgrown grass and other vegetation, all surrounded by trees, with grass paths cut down for visitors to walk down. The valley is filled with bird houses and occasional benches for people to sit down and take in their surroundings.
When driving into the park, part of the road is lined with trees that visitors drive between, 5 on the right side of the road and 3 on the left, each about 60 feet tall. The branches on the trees don’t start to show until about 15 feet up. The trees end just 50 feet before the walking path that leads into the valley. These trees show visitors that they are about to surround themselves with nature. The walking path that visitors take to reach the valley is composed of stone, dirt, and grassy patches, and it looks as though vehicles used to drive over it regularly, with a center streak of grass. The path to the valley is just about a half a mile in length, with slight changes in steepness, and with multiple turns before reaching the valley. The stream that is to the right of the path is about 12 feet wide, with tiny waterfalls about every 100 feet. The right side of the stream is composed of large square rocks, making that side look more manmade, while the left side is completely natural, with just a bank of foliage leading up to the path. A quarter of a mile up the path, there is a large stone structure on the left side of the path, as what appears to be a fireplace or kiln, showing visitors a historical part of Cromwell Valley. Once visitors reach the valley, there is a fork that allows them to take the grass path by the stream, or go further into the valley and walk amongst the hills. The path that goes further into the valley has large variations in steepness, and circles back around to the entrance, with multiple resting spots for visitors to relax, watch the birds, and admire their surroundings. The valley is composed entirely of grass and other vegetation, and is surrounded by trees so that manmade structures are no longer visible. This layout of the park allows visitors to immerse themselves in nature little by little, starting with a lot of manmade structures, to none at all.
It seems that Cromwell Valley Park was made this way so that visitors would be able to separate themselves from the outside world.
Step by step visitors will be seeing manmade structures vanish from their sights, leaving the blacktop road behind and eventually leaving the rock path behind as well. When walking down to the stream, visitors will see two sides, the side that has been changed by man—the right side—and the side that is untouched by society—the left side. When visitors walk past the large stone structure, overgrown with grass and worn, they are able to see what once was, and that nature has retaken what society once took from it. Once they reach the fork in the path, visitors can choose to go right and keep the stream in their line of sight, or go left and move onto the valley. If they choose to stay on the path with the stream, visitors will see the right side of the stream, the manmade side. This path allows visitors to not completely rid themselves of the outside world, making sure they can still be close to manmade structures. If visitors choose to go into the valley, they will find themselves surrounded by nothing but trees and a large grassy hill in their line of sight. On this path they will find themselves fully immersed in nature with no disturbance of man. Even the path is just cut down grass, no pavement and no rocks are placed down. Cromwell Valley Park allows it’s visitors to slowly delve deeper into nature, venturing away from manmade structures and entering a place that is peaceful and
tranquil.