Monday, May 25, 2009

Biking at Indian Bend Wash

Indian Bend Wash is an amazing seven-mile long park that is also one of the nation's best flood control projects.   

Scottsdale at times could experience ravaging floods that would split the city in two. Water would flood homes. 

In 1959, the initial design by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was to build a concrete channel that would divide the city.  In 1964, the Scottsdale Town Enrichment Program (STEP Committee) met and developed a recommendation to turn Indian Bend Wash into a greenbelt recreation area, instead of a concrete channel. It took until 1966 to start obtaining funding and the first section developed was the first federally funded project in Arizona called El Dorado Park.

These folks had a lot of foresight and Indian Bend Wash is still one of the highlights of Scottsdale. You can bike, walk, and enjoy the lakes, grass, golf courses, pools, tennis, dog park, sports, and more at Indian Bend Wash. It has over 1200 acres and 300 of those acres are city parks. A problem flooding area turned into a wonderful recreational area.  More cities should consider this option.

16 comments:

PAK said...

It looks like a good place to spend free time.

Bergson said...

two bikes for a man

a great rider

B SQUARED said...

It would be nice if they would.

Cezar and Léia said...

Hello Julie
So nice that such an ingenious solution for the problem is at the same time a place for leisure!

By the way, I would like to thank you for so kind visit and comment in Luna's blog.
Thanks for your support!You are a kind friend!
Léia

Olivier said...

voila une bonne initiative, cela doit être agréable de profiter de ce parc
a good initiative, it veiled must be nice to use this park

brattcat said...

Interesting post, Julie. I love the birds and the parallel between their resting and flight and the bikers' resting and flight. Hope you manage to get off to Costa Rica soon.

Lowell said...

Nice shot...is the gentleman someone you know?

I remember the flooding very well...you could not get to Tempe from Scottsdale or vice versa!

Glad they've done something to alleviate the problem.

Kate said...

Love photos of bikes. As Denton said on an earlier post of his, each one tells a story.

Anonymous said...

I like the whole idea of using one thing for something else -- and this would be one akin to our railroad becoming a bike trail too.

My look back to the good old days on Decoration Day

VP said...

Where is the second biker?

Judy said...

I agree, it is a great idea.
We are on the road, so I check in with the blogs when I get a chance. Wish we could find a bike path like that where we are today.

Joy said...

That sounds amazing! And I'm jealous of that park.

Thanks for visiting Norwich Daily Photo and leaving your comment. Come back tomorrow for more of Fairhaven!


joy
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Sharon said...

The last few days have been perfect for riding!

Randy said...

I used to love to ride my bike here. I would always start on Mc Dowell and work my way north.

Don and Krise said...

We did some cycling where we were this weekend. Hope your weekend was a good one.

Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.com said...

I can clear up the questions in several of the comments above. The rider is indeed known and that also explains the empty bike. The subject of the photo is my son, Stuart, who likes to ride his bike in the Indian Bend Wash recreation area, as he lives near the bike path in Scottsdale about 6 miles north of the central Scottsdale portion of the same bike path where Julie and I live. Julie, Stuart and I have bikes, but we have not mastered (nor tried) the art of taking photos while riding, hence the empty bike.

(As some readers of the Scottsdale and Costa Rica Daily Photo sites have figured out, Julie and I are married and have our permanent home in Paradise Valley/Scottsdale and two vacation condos in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, which gives us the chance to share our hobbies of these Daily Photo sites, one for each location.)

One further comment about the Corps of Engineers' original plan for the Indian Bend Wash. The best way to visualize it is the big concrete channels for storm water runoff in Los Angeles that are sometimes shown in car chase scenes in movies. Scottsdale opposed such an ugly upside down Maginot Line that would have divided the community, and instead there is now a strong of parks, lakes, golf courses, and a delightful, and long bike path. I have ridden the bike all the way to downtown Tempe and Arizona State University. The bike path also connects to the long bike pathes that line the canal system.

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