Sep 26 2007
Scarlett-Mitchell Nature Area: Ann Arbor
It seems like lifetimes ago, but I once was a resident of Ann Arbor. It is a great town to live in. The parks system is incredible. Natural surface trails loop everywhere in that town. And city residents seem never to have met a parks millage that they didn’t like.
Of course, I was also busy starting my career as a teacher. So, I spent a lot of time inside several Ann Arbor area schools. One of these, Scarlett Middle School, has a neat little natural area to its south. Nature lovers can find it near the intersection of Platt and Ellsworth in the southeast section of Ann Arbor.
Like many of Ann Arbor’s natural areas, the Scarlett-Mitchell Nature Area is the result of several partnerships. Some of the land is owned by the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Some of it is owned by the City of Ann Arbor. Volunteers spend time pulling invasive plants. And the teachers at the school take kids to the property for science learning. It is a beautiful thing.
The area is open to the public. Be aware that it is the location of a school. So, the best times to walk the area are on weekends and evenings.
A visitor will find several miles of trail inside the parcel. This mileage can be extended. Lillie Park is just to the south along Platt Road. Several additional parks are close to the west. With a little creativity, a hiker can get five or ten miles of hiking in the general vicinity.
The Scarlett-Mitchell Nature Area has several environments. Much of the west side of the property is filled with pleasant wooded areas. The northeastern sections contain wetlands and several small ponds. I was actually quite impressed during my several visits to find such a natural area within this largely residential section of town.
I wrote the following about the natural area several years ago:
05/20/03
I continued my survey of Ann Arbor parks tonight after meeting a
friend for dinner. On the east side of Platt Rd. in South Ann Arbor
is a little patch of woods (about 75 acres) called Scarlett-Mitchell
Woods. Half of the woods are owned by the Ann Arbor Public Schools,
half by the Parks Dept. I started in a small parking lot at the
side of Scarlett Middle School - a place at which I once did
volunteer work.
The trails that I hiked are kind of like the way a child would draw
the sun. There is a big loop with short trails leading straight out
to the borders of the area. These short spurs often lead to nearby
subdivisions. One leads the the I-94 right-of-way. Scenery is not
too bad for a neighborhood natural area. There are several swamps
and marshy lakes. There are some hills and trails that vary from
wide paths to skinny singletrack. The wildflowers were in bloom and
the noise from nearby freeways was always within earshot. I scared
two families of geese.
One spur trail seemed particularly intriguing. Unlike the others,
it seemed to have real purpose. I was running out of light after a
couple of miles, so I could not pursue it. Looking at a map, it
appears to link into Turnberry Park which is listed as having nature
trails. Additional parks in the area seem to have potential for a
linked hike. There is a short sidewalk route to Lillie Township
Park, for example and several miles of paths. Also, there is a
chain of parks to the west of Platt that contain about 500 acres
with Scarlett-Mitchell included. I would not be surprised if there
is a good extended hike in this area.
The Scarlett-Mitchell Nature Area demonstrates what a community can create with a small natural space. And when connected by trail to other small urban natural areas, the results are amazing.
This is the official Ann Arbor Parks map of the nature area:
I also placed the land boundary onto Microsoft maps: