Best Inner-City Hike

The wonders of midtown await the urban hiker. From any of the Plaza's covered parking areas, walk north on Wornall or Jefferson to 44th Street, through a neighborhood of apartments, bungalows, and interesting gardens and yards. Go east and then north on Broadway past 43rd Street, past the old trolley tracks to Pennsylvania and through the core of unique shops in Westport. On Westport Road head east past Broadway to Baltimore. A left at the post office takes you through the remainder of residential Westport; across 39th Street is the Olde Hyde Park Historic District, a true neighborhood with lots of mature trees, homes, and apartments of varied styles. At Redemptorist Church, the pumice and lava-rock grotto of the Blessed Virgin, surrounded with towering Ponderosa pine and post oak, makes a good spot for a break before you head down Baltimore into Penn Valley Park. Then, it's hiker's choice: Spend a few moments gazing at the skyline from the Scout, pause at Fisherman's Pond (rife with ducks, geese, and snipe), or walk around and check out the Liberty Memorial renovation. The best way back is just as scenic: South along Penn Valley Drive (the road through the park beneath the Scout) through the park to 31st Street, through the Penn Valley Community College Campus, down Pennsylvania through the Valentine neighborhood to Westport Road, then Broadway through Mill Creek Park to the Plaza.