Baltimore hides a forest that most cities can only dream of. Gwynns Falls Leakin Park, in west Baltimore, protects more than 1,000 acres of mature woodland along the Gwynns Falls stream — the largest old-growth forest inside any city on the East Coast, and one of the biggest urban forest parks in the United States.
The park was born from a gift: philanthropist J. Wilson Leakin left his estate to the city in 1922 to create it, and Baltimore added the Crimea estate of Thomas DeKay Winans, whose Italianate Orianda House and Gothic chapel still stand among the trees. The Olmsted Brothers had recommended protecting this valley as early as 1904 — and walking it today, under a closed green canopy, it is easy to see why.
Inside are some 16 miles of marked trails, the Carrie Murray Nature Center, wildlife from deer to owls and hawks, and the Gwynns Falls Trail corridor running 15-plus miles through the park and beyond. A favorite southern gateway is Winans Meadow, at 4500 North Franklintown Road, where the forest opens just enough for a picnic before the trees close in again.
Autumn is its finest season: fall color over a real forest, minutes from downtown, without leaving the city. Maryland has even studied making it a state park — the first inside Baltimore — but for now it remains the city’s own great green secret, waiting on the west side.
Photo: Walters Art Museum via Wikimedia Commons
