River Legacy Park
Following the curves of the Trinity River and stretching across Arlington’s northern boundary, River Legacy Park, offers the beauty of the wilderness with open spaces for your favorite pastime. From botany to bicycling or rollerblading to relaxing strolls through the woods, this 1,300-acre City of Arlington public park has something for everyone. The park’s ecological diversity of bottomland forest, wetlands and prairie provides abundant habitat for countless birds, fish, mammals and native plants.
Amenities include:
8 miles of paved hike and bike trails winding through thick forests and expansive greenbelts
10-mile mountain bike trail, built and maintained by DORBA (Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association)
Picnic areas
River Overlooks
Restrooms
Custom playground and playscapes
Exercise station
Canoe launch at pedestrian bridge at Collins Street entrance – Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Paddling Trail Information
Park hours: 5 am to 10 pm
Main entrance: 701 NW Green Oaks Blvd., Arlington, TX 76006
Collins Street entrance: 3020 N. Collins St., Arlington, TX 76006
Visit www.naturallyfun.org to learn more about River Legacy Park, park ordinances, reservation information, and other nearby city parks.
Devil's Cigar
River Legacy Park is one of the few known habitats of the Devil’s Cigar, discovered here in 1991. This unusual, three-inch fungus has an incredible life history and is highly unique because of its ability to make hissing sounds. Known scientifically as Chorioactis geaster, this particular species is from the class Ascomycetes. Information regarding the Devil’s Cigar is scarce. Texas and Japan are the only places where it has been reported. It was first reported in Austin in 1893. The scarcity of this fungus in nature is almost matched by the rarity of references in taxonomic keys, literature and textbooks.
In River Legacy Park, the Devil’s Cigar grows around decaying cedar elm stumps and can usually be spotted in the fall through December. The velvety brown spindle-shaped tube pokes through the leaf litter up to four inches and eventually splits open forming three to six rays to expose a lighter smooth inner surface. From this exposed inner surface, a smoke-like cloud of spores is released with an audible hiss, thus the name Devil’s Cigar.
