Tillie K. Fowler Park is one of the widest best maintained hiking trails yet! The Park is made up of a full kids playground area, huge dog park, biking trails and 2 main hiking trails. The full loop for the Tower trail is just over a mile long, and has a lookout tower at the end with an amazing view.
There is a ton of parking throughout the entire park including 3 huge bus parking spots right outside the Island trail. The direction our map on our phones took us was closed off, and had a sign that told us to go through there main entrance just around the corner.
There is no parking or any entrance fee at Tillie K. Fowler Park which is a huge plus! Having an amazing hiking trail like this that is completely free is rare. Doing your part to atleast help keep it clean goes a long way!
The entire hiking trail is completely dog friendly, and before the hiking trails is one large dog park seperated into 2 parts one for large dogs, and one for small dogs. The only place he couldn't get into was the Nature Center.
There are 2 seperate hiking trails at Tillie K. Fowler Park Tower Trail, and Island Trail. We started our day at the Tower Trail. The trail began close to the dog park after a short walk we arrived at the Nature Center, and decided to take turns checking it out while the other one watched the dog.
Inside the Nature Center there are several terrariums with different animals including different types of snakes, lizards, tarantulas, and turtles.
After the Nature Center we proceeding towards the lookout tower. The trail was consistantly wide, and had a ton of bridges. As we walk we also notice the Historic Brick Road that crosses under the tower trail a few times. After .8 miles we arrived at the lookout tower. The lookout tower has several levels, and the view from the top is very beautiful. On our visit we got to see a herd of deer running through the woods from the top of the tower.
At the top of the lookout tower you feel at the top of the trees. You can see the swampy land ahead that leads you towards the Ortega River. The view of the Ortega River is very slim, and far out from this point but the view was still amazing.
The trail is a loop so on the way back we got to see some other cool things, and visit diffrent terrain, and bridges. The second hlf of the loop is a little shorter as well, and the full hike came out to 1.3 miles. The second half of the loop was a little narrower in certain areas which we now associate as perfect spots for spiders to stretch their webs across. However, this trail we only saw spiders on the outside of the trail which was a nice change of pace for us. Nothing is worse than runing into a spider web, and constantly feeling you have a nest of spiders in your hair. The coolest part of the last part of the loop was a strangely grown tree who had a zig zag pattern at the bottom.
After the Tower Trail we headed over to the Island Trail. Unfortunately the trail was taped off, and had "Trail Closed" written at the trail head. This Trail is usually just over 2 miles long, and would've been the perfect addition to our hiking day. We aren't sure why the trail was closed or when it will be re-opened.
