Sometimes local adventures are the best kind! One of our 2017 summer bucket list items was to find the troll in Wichita. I think it’s important to find local adventures and appreciate the city that you live in. So last summer, we decided to try to find the troll. For those of you not in the know (and I wasn’t until last year), the Wichita troll lives under a metal gate near the Arkansas river in downtown Wichita.
The troll is much bigger than I expected! It’s approximately 6 or 7 feet tall. And quite honestly, it’s a little creepy. I was expecting some cute troll-like thing, like the movie Trolls. A troll that would sing a nice, happy Justin Timberlake song. But, alas, it’s a large, metal structure that is a bit creepy. For some background on the troll, it was apparently first installed in 2007 by a local Wichita artist. There’s no sign telling you that the troll is nearby or even anything about the background or history of the troll. The troll was vandalized a few times over the years (an arm was broken off), but he was fixed and has apparently been doing fine for the past several years. He looks like he’s in jail because he’s under a large metal grate and chained up.
We started our afternoon by first by crossing the pedestrian bridge and going to the Keeper of the Plains. The Keeper of the Plains is another statue-but much, much bigger than the troll. It’s approximately 44 feet tall and stands on a large rock where the big and little Arkansas rivers meet in downtown. [Side note – if you’re in Wichita, you don’t pronounce Arkansas like the state (Ar-kan-saw) but instead as the word is spelled – Kansas (Ar-Kansas). ] After seeing the Keeper of the Plains, we headed down the sidewalk towards downtown. I had looked up the general location before going so we wouldn’t walk aimlessly in 95 degree heat, but I still didn’t know where it was.
We ended up finding it pretty easily, but it was all by chance. We went to take a picture near a large opening of a drain. After I took the picture, Ava exclaimed that she had found the troll because she saw a leg in the distance. The troll was actually in the drain where we were taking the picture! The kids all scrambled up the dirt hill so they could climb on the storm grate above the troll and look down on it. They were all pretty excited about it -and we could check that off our Summer Bucket List!
We then headed over to Riverside Park to play in the water fountains to cool off. Riverside Park is located right near the river, too. It has a small zoo, a small playground area, lots of space for walking and playing, and in the summer, fountains! We had a couple of “ninja” races to see who could make it to the top of the ropes on the playground first. Then, the kids hopped around in the fountains splashing and playing. I like the Riverside area and Riverside park because there seems to be more diversity in the people going to the park and the fountains. It was a beautiful afternoon! [Another side note, that evening, a crazy storm blew into Wichita which disrupted Hayden’s baseball game. It was total mayhem running to the car as the storm rolled in. During that storm, there were 84 mph winds recorded in Wichita. It was like a small hurricane (or tornado)!]
Late this spring, I took Wyatt to find the troll again. We kinda did the same thing that we did the summer before. We first went to the Keeper of the Plains and then found the troll. It wasn’t as hot because it was spring, but we still wanted something to drink. So, we went to Songbird Juice and grabbed a smoothie and then headed over to Riverside Park to play. The fountains weren’t turned on yet. But Wyatt had ninja races again (against the invisible person from Oklahoma), and he won! He was also pretty excited to find a kindness rock when we we’re walking up to the park.
If you’re in Wichita (or near to Wichita), plan an afternoon exploring the Riverside area. Get out and have fun locally!