Radnor Lake After The Ice Storm: What A Forest Hills Summer Looks Like Now

If you live in Forest Hills and you have walked the Lake Trail once a week for the last decade, this summer will feel like a different park. The canopy you knew is thinner. The ridge is hotter. And the schedule of small events that has always structured a Radnor year, from the Chestnut Group's Art Show to the volunteer trail days, is arriving inside a park that has quietly grown by nine acres while everyone was cleaning up.

That is the story worth telling this July. Not that Radnor is back, which is technically true, but that Radnor is back as a slightly different place, and the way a resident uses it should shift with it.

The Storm, In Radnor Terms

The January ice storm was the worst blow to the natural area since the 2010 flood. Park staff and volunteers cleared debris fast enough that Radnor Lake State Park reopened at 1 p.m. on Monday, February 27, roughly 60 days ahead of the original projection, after 45 volunteers worked the first of six planned special volunteer days and another 33 helped clear the access trail and rehabilitate the South Lake Trail. That timeline matters because it is the reason the park is walkable in July at all.

What it does not tell you is what the trails look like now. Park experts described trees falling every 30 seconds at the peak of the storm, and parts of the forest that were once dense understory will now be allowed to revert to native grasslands rather than be replanted as canopy. Hikers on Ganier Ridge this spring were already reporting full-sun exposure on stretches that used to be shaded, ninety-degree afternoons on the ridge, and a noticeable absence of deer.

A resident walking the Ganier Ridge and South Cove loop in late spring described the ridge as unrecognizable in places, with so much canopy gone that sunscreen and extra water had become non-negotiable well before Memorial Day.

That is the practical takeaway. The park is open. The rules have not changed. The microclimate has.

Which Trails Feel Different, And Which Don't

If you are choosing a Radnor walk this summer based on what you knew a year ago, a quick recalibration by trail:

• Lake Trail (3-mile loop, 213 feet of gain). Still the easy, leashed-dog-free, no-jogging loop that circles the 85-acre lake. Least changed in feel because much of it hugs the water and the paved portion is intact. Best early-morning option if you want the old Radnor rhythm.
• South Lake Trail. Specifically rehabilitated by volunteers after the storm. Reopened with the rest of the park in February. Expect fresh tread and cleared sightlines.
• Ganier Ridge Trail. Most changed. Significant canopy loss on the ridge means direct sun where there used to be shade, and heat that behaves more like an open meadow than a forest walk. Two climbs of more than 150 feet in under half a mile, one at about 1.4 miles and one at about 3.5 miles on the longer connector, still have stairs but now less overhead cover.
• Otter Creek Road. The one place inside the park where leashed dogs and running are permitted. Closed to traffic, still the default for anyone whose morning walk includes a Labrador.
• South Cove connector. Rooty, uneven footing on the ridge sections, same as before, but with more light reaching the forest floor. Watch for wildflower stretches that were not there last year.

The Walter Criley Visitor Center at the East entrance off Granny White Pike remains the largest parking area and the place to grab a current trail map. The West entrance off Franklin Road is smaller but still has restrooms and direct access to Otter Creek Road. If you have been defaulting to the East lot for twenty years out of habit, the West lot is worth reconsidering on a hot July Saturday, particularly if the Ganier Ridge side is the part of the park you now want to skip.

The Art Show Returns, And So Does A Reason To Come Inside

Mark July 16 through 19 on the calendar. The Radnor Lake 2026 Art Show returns to the Walter Criley Visitor Center, presented by The Chestnut Group to benefit Friends of Radnor Lake, with a Patron Party, public art show and sale, and silent auction. The Chestnut Group's artists work en plein air at Radnor, which means the pieces on the walls will be studies of the same trails you are walking, made in the months leading up to the show.

For a resident, this year's show carries a subtext the previous ones did not. The artists have been painting a park mid-recovery. Some of the landscapes on display will be of scenes that no longer exist in the same form. That is worth an hour of a Forest Hills afternoon even if you have never bought a piece of Middle Tennessee landscape art in your life. Proceeds support the ongoing conservation work that got the park reopened on the compressed February timeline in the first place.

The Park That's Coming: Harris Ridge And Nine New Acres

The other reason this summer is a hinge point: Radnor is actively growing.

Friends of Radnor Lake announced a nine-acre acquisition near the intersection of Franklin Road and Old Hickory Boulevard, on the east side of the natural area, connecting the new parcel to the existing park and adding a planned one-acre parking area to relieve pressure from a park that draws close to two million visitors annually by some counts. Cleanup and demolition of the houses on the parcel are scheduled to be completed in 2026, with volunteer projects at Harris Ridge Trail continuing into 2027.

The trail itself has been in the works for more than twenty years as a partnership between Friends of Radnor Lake, the Harris family, and the State of Tennessee. When it opens, it will connect a new trailhead at the northwest corner of Old Hickory Boulevard and Franklin Road to Otter Creek Road inside the natural area. There is some daylight between the numbers reported for the finished trail. Friends of Radnor Lake describes a 3.5-plus-mile route with some of the longest hikes and most expansive views in the Middle Tennessee metropolitan area, while NewsChannel 5 reported an $8 million project creating a 2.5-mile trek. Either way, the practical outcome for a Forest Hills resident is another entry point to Radnor, more parking, and a genuinely new hike within walking or short-driving distance of home. Volunteer days for cleanup and trail work are being announced on a rolling basis if you want to see the parcel before the trail is finished.

A Summer Rhythm Worth Adjusting

Elsewhere in the city, the summer signals are steady. The City of Forest Hills has the Master Stormwater Plan on track for completion by the end of summer 2026, the new Tyne Boulevard Pathway from Hillsboro Road to Robert E. Lee Drive is scheduled to begin construction in 2027, and the patriotic decor at the stone wall features stays up from just before Memorial Day through Labor Day. None of that changes daily life dramatically. What does change daily life is the park most residents treat as an extended backyard.

A reasonable Forest Hills summer at Radnor this year looks something like: earlier walks, more Lake Trail and Otter Creek Road on the hottest days, Ganier Ridge saved for cool mornings or held for October, one afternoon at the Art Show between July 16 and 19, and an eye on the volunteer schedule if you want a first look at the Harris Ridge parcel before it becomes a trail. The park you knew is still there. It is just asking to be used a little differently while it grows back and grows outward.

If you are thinking about a move within Forest Hills, or considering the neighborhood for the first time and want a conversation grounded in how residents actually live here rather than a listings tour, Beth Molteni is available to talk. Schedule a Consultation when the timing is right.