CHAPTER 3Bean Creek and Pleasant Run

All photos in this chapter are © by Joe Konz 

Garfield Park wouldn’t be the same without its two waterways, Bean Creek and Pleasant Run, and there’s no more impressive point in the park to appreciate that fact than the view in the image shown below, the confluence of Pleasant Run (left) and Bean Creek. This photo, which looks east, was taken Jan. 8, 2005, from the Pagoda Drive bridge.

Pleasant Run enters the park at its north end under Raymond Street before turning west to reach the point above after which it continues west under the railroad tracks and flows past Emmerich Manual High School, flanking Pleasant Run Parkway. It eventually crosses under Madison Avenue and continues westward before converging with White River behind the private Lilly Recreation Park between Harding and West streets. 

Both streams have their origin on the Eastside of Indianapolis. For Pleasant Run, that location is just north of 13th Street near East Pleasant Run Parkway, South Drive. 

Meanwhile, Bean Creek begins as Mich Run north of Raymond Street between Sherman Drive and Emerson Avenue. It goes southwest and is Bean Creek by the time it reaches Raymond Street east of Sherman Drive. After passing through the north section of Sarah Shank Golf Course, it continues snaking west before entering Garfield Park at Southern Avenue west of Shelby Street. 

At right is a section of Bean Creek, as seen from the new pedestrian bridge near the amphitheater on Nov. 29, 2013. 

The first two photos below represent spring perspective (first) and closeup (second) shots of a swollen Bean Creek just southwest of Garfield Park's green iron pedestrian bridge (in the background) near the asphalt basketball court. These were taken only a couple hours after 1.75 inches of rain had fallen in a 24-hour period ending May 5, 2017. The toy vehicle in the closeup photo is the red speck you see in the perspective shot. The third photo below, from the same date, is a closeup look at Pleasant Run as it passes below the Pagoda Drive bridge. And the fourth photo below is Pleasant Run, looking west from the Pagoda Drive bridge toward the Conrail railroad trestle.

Many of my favorite Garfield Park stream photos were taken in winter, as the majority of photos on this page will attest. The first three photos below were taken on Jan. 8, 2005, a day when I didn't have to convert images to monochrome to get a black-and-white effect because the heavily overcast day served to effectively mute any color detail. 

The fourth photo below was taken on Nov. 29, 2013, and the one after that on Dec. 21, 2012. 

Above and below is Pleasant Run as seen from opposite perspectives. The view of the stream and the Conrail railroad trestle above looks west from the Pagoda Drive stone bridge. Below, it’s the stream and Pagoda Drive looking east from the Conrail railroad trestle. These images were taken in February 2011.  

Above and below: In late 2016 and early 2017, Bean Creek east of the Pagoda Drive bridge got a major facelift. Not only was extensive cleanup and landscaping involved (the green nettting is protecting newly sown grass seed), but contractors erected a wooden fence between the embankment apex and the nearby asphalt pathway. The fence is visible in the upper right portion of the photo above. 

Water – especially when it’s quietly still – invites opportunities for reflection photography, such as the image below, also from Dec. 21, 2012.

December 2012 must have been a good month to be out taking winter photos in Garfield Park. The photo of Bean Creek above was taken on Dec. 29.

The sun adds a sparkling dimension to the streams, as shown by the images above and below, the latter also reflecting a low water-level period at the time these were taken on Nov. 29, 2013. The streams periodically hit even drier spells, as evidenced dramatically in the second photo below. In spring 2007, my daughter Elizabeth kindly served as a model for an assignment in a portraiture class I was taking through the adult learning program of IUPUI. She was sitting on rocks in the dry Bean Creek bottom, and I was standing on the stone pedestrian bridge along Conservatory Drive.

Coming tomorrow: Chapter 4: The new Bean Creek pedestrian bridge 

Previously in the Garfield Park in Pictures series:

Introduction

Chapter 1: “America, We Remember”

Chapter 2: The Garfield Park Arts Center

Cary opens its completed Downtown Park in time for the holiday season

More than three years ago, I visited downtown Cary, N.C., and photographed what I thought was mostly completed work on a Downtown Park. 

The dominant attraction of the park was a striking fountain, and I spent considerable time looking for various angles to capture the fountain's beauty. There was construction activity to the east of the fountain, but the information I had was that it was going to be a new library and parking garage, technically not part of the park. But ... they are park-adjacent!  

I didn't know until a few months ago that Cary has been working all this time to expand the park to approximately three times the size that I first saw in September 2018. And then two weeks ago, the town officially opened the fully completed project to the public, just in time for installation of lots of holiday lights and decorations, which made the park worth visiting both day and night, the latter at least through the holidays.

Curious, I returned to Cary on Monday, Dec. 4 during daylight hours to photograph the park. I've never seen anything like it -- at least not for a downtown park. Not anywhere, and not at any time. If I dare say it, at the risk of being hyperbolic, it's almost other worldly.

There are ponds, streams with layered spills, a lagoon, multiple levels (giving visitors different perspectives), hills, stairways, several on-site buildings, a corner in which dogs are invited to play and a nice-sized open lawn in front of what appears to be a covered performance stage. The photo leading off the post is that apparent stage, with a sliver of the open lawn on the left side of the image. The photo below shows the lawn in its entirety as seen from the stage. 

There's also a good amount of playground equipment (see photo below; not an optimum shot, but there were kids on the equipment, and I didn't want to get minors into the photo if I could possibly avoid it) and several overlooks, including one walkway whose end point is surrounded by a cluster of metal circles and artistically splayed spikes -- far enough away from visitors to not cause any harm. There also are foosball tables and a rectangular skating rink, and everything in the park is accessible by wide, snaking concrete walkways (and/or the aforementioned stairways).

I know I packed a lot into the two previous paragraphs, so suffice to say that it's one of those things you'll have to visit and see yourself to believe. I just hope the pictures in this post do it justice.  

The park's south end is anchored now by the fountain -- it is still there -- and by a newly constructed Cary Public Library and, behind the library, a multi-floor parking garage.

To view a full gallery of images from my Dec. 4 shoot at the completed Downtown Cary Park, follow the link in this sentence.  

Above: The cluster of metal circles and artistically splayed spikes near the end of a bridge overlook. 

Above: This pond is immediately behind the covered stage; New apartments or townhouses are in the background on the parks southeast end.

Above: One of the layered stream spills. I think the water from here flows into the pond in the picture immediately above it. 

Above: The far end of the pond, where one can see another stream spill (foreground left) as well as three levels of a pedestrian bridge that eventually takes a visitor to the overlook with the splayed metal spikes.  

Above and below: Opposite sides of enclosures on the park's northwest segment. Not sure what these buildings are for. 

Above and next two below are views from the spiky metal overview. Above is the pond, performance stage and open lawn in the background. Below, a portion of Barkyland, where dogs are invited to play and romp. The second photo below is a tree that grabbed my attention while at the overlook. 

The skating rink (above) and Foosball tables (below), both near the park's northeast end. 

Above: A green area behind the main fountain at the park's southwest end; the Cary Arts Center is the building in the background. 

Above and below: A side and straight on view of the new library just south of the park. The adjacent and new parking garage is in the second photo below. 

A closeup of the "Read" sign (above) outside the public library, and a closer shot of the fountains (below) that started the Downtown Park project. 

                             

Above and next three below: Water reflection shots taken at various points in the park. 

Above and next two below: A sampling of the park's decorations for the holiday season. 

Above and next four below: Outside the park along Academy Street, the city has other decorations for the season.