For the last few weeks, I’ve been sneaking off with another photographer friend to a special place that I don’t believe many people know about. It’s perfect for portraits, with lots of open space, shade and sun, interesting stone structures, and, come summer, what will be a beautiful area with grass and tall plants. I’m talking about the abandoned section of Liberty Park located just off Third Avenue where the freeway cut through the formerly 40-acre park in the heart of Spokane. Updated and landscaped in the early 1900s by the famous American landscape architects the Olmstead Brothers, parts of Liberty Park were leveled when I-90 was built directly through the center of the park.
Known to me only as "the ruins," I’ve been driving past the abandoned park for the past few years as I go from the South Hill to Gonzaga or downtown. For two years I’ve wanted to visit this place and use it as a setting for some fun and fanciful portraits, but I was nervous about going there on my own with my daughters since I’d seen transients there from time to time. It is a fairly isolated location and I wasn’t going to take my girls someplace unsafe just for a few photos.
Luckily for me, though, another photographer was just as interested as I was and so together we took three girls–my two and her one–up to the "ruins" to play. We were well rewarded for our efforts.
These beautiful old stairs lead up to an open field.
This little knoll at the top of the space would be perfect for kite flying, but we didn’t have enough wind when we were there. You can see the freeway below in the first photo, but I just love the way the light glistens off everything.
These natural basalt walls are crumbling but oh-so-perfect for climbing.
This is another area I’d really love to "play" in with a willing and cooperative subject. All our girls wanted to do was run, run, run with their balloons!
How could I resist that expression???
I have to digress for a moment to tell a funny mommy story. This is my oldest daughter, and at three, she is very imaginative and playful. She decided that this old hollow tree stump she’s standing inside is her new home. She’d crouch down and hide, then pop back up. "Okay, I’m going to go to sleep now," and squat back down.
Like this . . .
This little pocket of the park is so beautiful, my friend and I have started talking about restoration ideas and plans. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, we think, to scatter wildflower seeds over the open field and enjoy a carpet of blossoms in a few months? We’re planning to go back with trash bags and do a bit of clean-up, we dream of taking rakes and shovels and really working to fix this place up. But the land isn’t ours, and it seems no one else wants to take responsibility for it. In the two or so weeks since we’ve been there, I’ve seen numerous transients walking on and off the property and standing on my kite-flying knoll. I’d hate to put a lot of work into it only to be told that we were breaking laws, trespassing, or otherwise creating a disturbance.
This world of conservation, of wanting to help a local place, is pretty new to me. If anyone has ideas, we’d love to hear them! How would you approach wanting to care for this forsaken place? I’ve considered contacting The Inlander about it and asking them to take an interested, but perhaps I’m just trying to rehash old news and open old wounds that have been a long time healing.
I’ve fallen in love with this place, though, and would love for the rest of Spokane to be able to enjoy its beauties.
