Fire Lane 7

The Walk

Start up top at the Springville Road trailhead, around 1,075 feet, and let the road fall gently away down the ridge. The map traces about two-thirds of a mile of it here; follow the full lane out along the crest and you’ve walked close to a mile — but the number that matters is the one you won’t feel, because the whole ridgetop stretch barely tips downhill. It’s the rare Forest Park walk where you can look up the whole time.

The tread is wide, packed dirt under that Avenue-of-Trees canopy — leafy and open in a way the fir-dark trails aren’t, and worth timing for it. In spring the south-facing bank comes alive: yellow woodland violet low in the duff, then western trillium’s three white petals, and, later, the nodding orange of a wild tiger lily into early summer.

Forest Skill: read the aspect The reason this slope blooms while the shady north-facing ravines stay green-and-brown is aspect — which way a hillside faces. South-facing ground catches more direct sun, warms earlier, and dries faster, so it wakes up weeks ahead of the cool, wet slopes across the creek. Once you start noticing which way a hillside leans, you can half-predict where the first wildflowers of the year will show — and this ridge is one of the good ones.

A working detail to file away, not fuss over: this ridge also carries a buried petroleum-pipeline corridor, so you’ll pass the occasional warning sign — stay on the roadbed and don’t go bushwhacking off it. And note who else belongs here: Fire Lane 7 is open to horses (Springville is the only trailhead a trailer can reach) but closed to bikes, so it’s a foot-and-hoof road, not a riding one.

Runner’s note For a park whose fire lanes mostly serve up leg-burning intervals, this is the anomaly — a nearly flat, wide dirt mile that runs easy in both directions. Good for a recovery day or an unhurried out-and-back. Just keep an ear out for horses and step wide to let them pass; the tread is generous enough that it’s no trouble.

Below the ridgetop, the honesty clause: where the lane splits and the branches drop toward Leif Erikson, the easy walking ends and the trail narrows into a steeper, curvier grade that gets slick when wet. That’s your natural turnaround if you came for the flat part. The upper road is also well-stitched into the surrounding network — the Hardesty Trail peels off just past the gate, the Ridge Trail ends here, and the lane crosses the Wildwood a few hundred yards past mile 19¼ — which is what makes the gentle loops possible.

Before you go

For the easiest outing, walk the ridgetop as an out-and-back and turn around at the split before the grade steepens. If you want a loop, the classic is the roughly four-mile Fire Lane 7-Springville Road circuit, and Houle’s Trillium-Wildwood-Fire Lane 7 loop (about 2.8 miles, rated easy) is the gentlest way to string these upper trails together.

Wet-season truth: “wide dirt road” becomes “wide mud road” from the first real rains through spring, and the steep branches below the split are where you’ll actually slip. It’s a fine year-round walk, but the tread runs its best when it’s had a few dry days. Go in daylight, keep the dog leashed, and time it for spring if the wildflowers are what you came for.

Then, on the flat part, do the thing this trail is built for: stop walking for a minute. Look down at the bank, not out at a view. The show here is at your feet.