Going to the gardens via an underpass and the river

From a parking spot at the Veterans Park, the walk to John Wilson Gardens takes you through this very long tunnel, unlit, damp, and with a dirt floor, which carries I-40 over it.

Looking back at the tunnel...over to the right are pass-ways for the Swannanoa River to go.

But when the river floods this area, downed trees and branches can pile up and block the natural flow...creating a dam of sorts...so someone has moved them to the side of the main channel.

One of the sports available at Veteran's Park, and the Greenway, is Frisbee Golf, with stations all along the river and around the circumfrance of the garden plots.

Treasured Tree, Northern Red Oak - so sayeth the sign.

My path, which is paved, goes parallel to the river...where there are various spots to approach it.

A few trees have started to have fall color.

The land on the opposite shore is owned by Montreat College, I believe.

And this side of the river may be part of the greenway, or the gardens, or the Veteran's Park. The river banks on the other side of the interstate are slated to have major improvements to them after next spring's floods. This side didn't show on the map of improvements, but it sure has the same needs.

I'l show you gardens next...

Today's quote:

The universe is still and complete.  Everything that ever was, is;
everything that ever will be , is - and so on, in all possible
combinations.  Though in perceiving it we imagine that it is
in motion, and unfinished, it is quite finished and quite
astonishingly beautiful.

In the end, or rather, as things really are, any event, no matter
how small, is intimately and sensibly tied to all others.
All rivers run full to the sea; those who are apart are brought
together; the lost ones are redeemed; the dead come back to life;
the perfectly blue days that have begun and ended in golden
dimness continue, immobile and accessible; and, when all is
perceived in such a way as to obviate time, justice becomes
apparent not as something that will be, but something that is.

Mark Helprin
From: Winter's Tale