 Hello, Columbia. Welcome to our edition of Telling Our Story Exploring the Parks. I am your host, Wanda Austin Herndon. Join us as we explore our parks. Hello, Columbia, and welcome to our current episode of Telling Our Story Exploring the Parks. Today, come join us at beautiful Saluda Riverwalk out on Candie Lane. Come take a walk on the trails with us and enjoy the view. The Saluda Riverwalk at 650 Candie Lane opened in June of 2021. With three miles of trail beside the lower Saluda River, this park features awe-inspiring scenery, whitewater rapids, and valuable natural habitat with an outstanding fishery. It's the only place you can see deer, turkey, birds, all kinds of wildlife, and I mean we are in a urban setting. I mean it's just fantastic down here. Birds for everybody. You can see things if you don't know about birds or if you're a serious bird, you can come out here and get things for your your lifeless that you might not even find anywhere else. It's super exciting and then what's a real treat to see are the river otter. They're very rare, not very often seen, but they like to swim in the water and they'll pop their heads up and look and maybe even make a little squeak. They're super cool, exciting when you get to see a river otter. The diversity, the more diverse the plant life is, the more diverse the animals are that live here. More caterpillars and things that are able to munch on your plants, that means you have more food for birds or songbirds that are passing through and that's all supported by the plant life that's here and the insects that feed off of those plants are the protein for everything else in the food chain. It's also special that you have two rivers coming together. You've got the Saluda River which is cold, you've got the Broad River which is warmer, and so where they come together you have kind of a mix of species that like the two different specific things, but we're lucky because we get to see them all in one spot here at the Confluence. City staff became involved with the park soon after Richland Penny team began construction in July of 2017. The city did a soft opening to accommodate public demand. The Saluda River Walk opened officially on Monday August the 30th, 2021. With the recent completion of the connection to Board Island Sanctuary, phase one of the River Walk is finished. The river has done a lot for myself and my life you know kind of helping me go where I want to go and teach me many different things and so having access to this fabulous resource for other people who don't know it like I know it is awesome. Board Island is the thing that people come for so anybody who would enjoy a pretty spot just it's exciting to walk across the bridge and go to an island in the middle of the river that would otherwise not be accessible to you that's very exciting. Lots of friendly people, nice park rangers who are excited to talk to you and answer your questions. We've been coming down here two years we walk and we sit and take our breaks and mollygag some. The convenience and it being so pretty and clean we just we like it a lot. If you don't like to get outside because it's too hot come to Saluda River Walk to get outside because the cool water off that river our river is about 58 degrees year round it's coming off the bottom of Lake Murray it stays cool you get these cool breezes that come up. If you find yourself on the river you should be properly prepared with the right equipment whether it's a life jacket helmet the proper watercraft the Saluda River is very popular for tubing and entering in the river at designated points is pretty important so you don't find yourself in trouble. In the future phase two of the project will connect this park to riverfront park by way of a pedestrian bridge across the broad river upstream of I-126. Additionally plans for Irmo Chapin recreation to expand the Saluda Shoals trails systems down river to make it possible for the Greenway trails network will expand across Mississippi. I think it's well overdue people are going to remember Columbia when they come down here and walk. I like the thing is the crown jewel of Columbia you know it's like a hidden secret that more more people are finding out about. Thank you for joining us today please stay tuned for our next episode of telling our story exploring the park. As with all our parks our mission here at the City of Columbia Parks and Recreation is to change lives through a cultural of transformational leadership innovation and phenomenal customer service. Thank you for joining us today and please join us in the future for more episodes of telling our story exploring the parks and remember we are columbia.