Fort Woof and Gateway Park

FORT WOOF & GATEWAY PARK

Fort Woof is a special area for dogs, built in Gateway Park. Gateway Park is on the Trinity River, a few miles east of downtown Fort Worth. An obscure magazine about dogs called 'Dog Fancy Magazine' listed the top ten dog parks in America, with Fort Woof in its first year of operation ranked #2, an accolade about which Fort Worth was quite proud, and even more proud now that the latest dog park rankings of Dog Fancy has ranked Fort Woof #1. It is not known if a city wide celebration is planned like the one the city held in the same park as Fort Woof, that being Gateway Park, when some equally obscure Washington D.C. lobbying group put Fort Worth on some sort of Most Livable Community list. The civic pride was overwhelming, like a girl who thought of herself as homely somehow finding herself winning a beauty pageant. No reason to question the nature of the pageant, just proudly wear the crown.

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A sign posting the Fort Woof rules at the entry to the dog park. Fort Woof has a website with plenty of details about the park

.A poem about dog respect.

At Fort Woof the dogs have their own drinking fountains. A fire hydrant is also provided for practice.

The big dogs are segregated from the little dogs after an unfortunate incident where a little dog was murdered by 2 big dogs. It is believed the big dogs are currently in Huntsville awaiting execution.

This is the little dog area. On this day it appears to be sparsely attended. One might extrapolate from this that Texans like their dogs big.

A banner attached to the fence announcing Fort Woof is #2. It is not known if plans are afoot to upgrade the park and possibly secure that #1 ranking....Update: no need to change a thing (except this photo), Fort Woof was ranked #1 by the latest rankings in widely read Dog Fancy Magazine. It is not known if a city wide celebration is planned like what occurred when an obscure Washington, D.C. lobbying group put Fort Worth on its list of Most Livable Communities.

Dog traffic is carefully controlled at Fort Woof.

Let's leave Fort Woof for a bit and look a little at the park
in which Fort Woof resides, Gateway Park.

Gateway Park is quite large. There are miles of paved trails inside the park. A new bridge and trail connects Gateway Park to the rest of the Fort Worth Trinity Trails. You can pedal from Gateway Park to the Stockyards and beyond. In two locations along the paved trail wooden boardwalks have been constructed that take you down to the river.

This boardwalk is close to Fort Woof and is the easier of the two to find.

And once more a boardwalk is dead ended by flood residue.

This is a new bridge leading to the trails along the Trinity River.

A dam creates a small lake and a bridge for bikers.

Fishing is allowed on this section of the Trinity River. But you are advised not to eat what you catch.

A kayaker with beautiful downtown Fort Worth in the background a few miles west.

That concludes our visit to Fort Woof and Gateway Park.

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