The Reserve Nature Trails keep 70-plus acres of Heath wild on purpose

While the Lake Ray Hubbard shoreline and the new town center pull most of the attention, Heath quietly held on to a wilder stretch off Chris Cuny Parkway. The Reserve Nature Trails runs across more than 70 acres of City- and HMBC-owned land left in a natural state, three signed trailheads marking the way in.

Nothing here is manicured. The paths are gravel and grass underfoot, not poured concrete, and you walk past natural limestone benches rather than a row of swings. In spring the open ground fills with wildflowers, and you're more likely to spook a rabbit or a hawk than pass another stroller. A loop map is posted for download if you want to know where the trailheads connect before you set out.

In a county this small filling in this fast, leaving 70 acres undeveloped is a choice somebody made on purpose. It's where you go in Heath when you want trees and quiet instead of a sidewalk and a splash pad, the semi-rural character the town keeps saying it wants to keep, fenced off from the bulldozers and actually walkable.