Touring *

From State Highway 99, exit to the east on the Mineral King Highway, State Highway 198. Exit at Ben Maddox Way and follow the exit loop to Ben Maddox Way north. Just after you cross the freeway, take an immediate right onto Mineral King Avenue. Follow Mineral King for four blocks east, paralleling Highway 99, and turn left at Lovers Lane. One block up, you'll cross Mill Creek and see the sign for Mill Creek Garden Park on the right. Turn right here, and park in the small lot on the right, marked by the sign "Allergy Free Demonstration Garden." The trail begins at the end of this lot.

The loop around Mill Creek Garden Park is less than half a mile long, but this park is situated near other Visalia skating attractions, and hence makes a good spot for embarking on a morning tour and winding it up with a picnic in the shade. Warm up by skating the loop around this lovely park once or twice. Watch out for some raised roots near the creek. The sidewalk bordering Mill Creek Parkway is just wide enough for medium-length in-line stroking. Cross to the north side of Mill Creek Parkway to follow Lovers Lane. A nicely landscaped concrete sidewalk makes Lovers Lane an attractive if noisy place to skate, and it passes some big, smooth parking lots on the way to Houston Avenue. Use the crosswalk at Houston to continue up Lovers Lane. Three new schools are on your right, and so far, skating is still permitted on these campuses when school's out. Just before Lovers Lane dead-ends in a small parking lot at the base of the levee (see the description of St. John's River Parkway in the previous listing) you'll cross an access road that passes through the north part of Golden West High School. To continue your skate on the St. John's River trail, go through the Lovers Lane lot and up the access path. If you want to take a longer route up to the river trail, turn right to skate through the high school campus to McAuluff Street. If you're visiting on a weekend, dally awhile in the large school parking lot to the right on McAuluff. To get to the levee trail entrance from here, turn left and skate uphill on the sidewalk. On your return to Mill Creek Garden Park are some additional pavement and scenery worth exploring, to the east on Mill Creek Parkway. If this is still not a through street (as was the case at this writing), you'll be delighted to find that there's little or no traffic to speak of. It may be only a couple of blocks long, but the pavement is new and smooth on the north side of the wide, divided street, which is adjacent to some nice neighborhoods just waiting to be toured.