Where in the MetroABQ Are You? Netherwood Neighborhoods Urban Forest Park
The Netherwood Park Neighborhood’s, Urban Forest Park: the coolest park you might never find.
Tucked in near the unending ribbons of asphalt & concrete that makes up The Big I (I40 & I25) Interchange, there are a few discrete Greenspaces to discover. One of the least known, and most diverse, is the Urban Forest Park, which sits alongside the exit ramp for Carlisle Blvd and I40; though you’d never know. It is a dense forest, accessed by one of two dead-end streets: Lafayette and Notre Dame in the Netherwood Park/North Campus area. A pack of coyotes is said to intermittently take refuge there, along with numerous snake spottings, roadrunners, and people looking for daytime shade.
Designated in 1950 as a park in the original plat, the Urban Forest Park was threatened in 1976 when a large developer hoped to build houses on the site. Neighbors convinced the developer to donate the land for tax purposes.
Directly above, you can see the Sandia Mountains and the Wyndham Hotel and Waterpark in the background. A tree-dense park, seen in the three preceding images, provides a full, shady canopy, and trails to get sort of lost on. The top image is of the concrete sound barrier wall separating Interstate 40 from the Netherwood Park neighborhood.
Big I Parks East: MetroABQ’s small but dense and wild Urban Forest Park, also called Miracerros Park, is indicated by the ‘A’ balloon below; there are only two ways to access the park, both from Indian School Blvd. A quarter mile to the west is Netherwood Park, a well manicured park surrounded by numerous Mid-Century Modern homes. The blue lines indicate a concrete arroyo, but also happens to be the North Diversion Channel Bike Path, mentioned in the MetroABQ June Issue. Across the highway is Balduini Park, a 7-acre park with three baseball fields where many Lobo Little League games are held.
