Three new features now open
The Salado Classroom / Restroom Building, Salado Creek Overlook and east dog park trail are now open on the east side of the park.
In addition to providing public restrooms, the Classroom / Restroom Building will be used to host educational programs and provide office space for Parks and Recreation staff. The building features an open-air classroom with seating for approximately 50 people. The classroom is shaded and contains a huge overhead fan to allow for year-round utilization of the facility. The building includes numerous sustainability features, including solar panels that will completely power the building and allow for excess energy to be put back into the grid and water cisterns that will collect and store rainwater for irrigating new plantings. The building offers park visitors a filtered water bottle filler. The Salado Bypass Trail, which connects Hardberger Park to the Salado Creek Greenway / Voelcker Lane, will run right through the middle of the building.
The new Salado Creek Overlook is a steel structure perched high on a bluff overlooking Salado Creek. It was built with metal grating so when users walk on it, they can see the natural landscape 30 feet below them. The Overlook connects to the Salado Creek Greenway / Voelcker Lane and is designed to be a place where visitors can take a break, reflect in nature and study the geologic features of the normally-dry Salado Creek.
The new dog park trail allows visitors with small dogs to enter the small-dog area directly, rather than walk through the large-dog area first. The trail also connects the dog park to the walking trails.