PITTSBURGH — From a distance, it looks like an ordinary trail behind the Frick Park Environmental Center. Then you notice all the QR codes, cool rustic seating areas and unique features like the pebble harp.
Sophie Hart, 15, of Bethel Park, cradles a handful of pebbles and slowly drops them in a large wooden box, where the stones create soft musical notes as they hit metal strings and other objects. If she drops more pebbles at the same time, the harp plays a variety of notes.
It kind of looks like a dreidel, observes her father, Mike Hart.
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“It’s the music — any combination of music, dancing and singing is her thing,” says her mother, Amy Hart, an elementary education reading specialist with an autism certification.
“Sophie loves the sounds. She loves the fact that she is controlling it, and the fact she is able to touch it.”
Sophie is on the autism spectrum with limited verbalization. But she is free, safe and engaged when she visits Frick Park’s new ⅓-mile-long Sensory Nature Trail in Squirrel Hill.
She also likes a sustainable fountain at the trailhead where she can lie next to the water and immerse her hand.
“Everything here, people can touch. That goes back to sensory learning. There’s something for every sense,” says her mother.
The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy opened the new $1.5 million Outdoor Discovery Space and Sensory Nature Trail at Frick Park in May.
Since then, the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children has held several field trips there and Frick has hosted its first accessible birding program, said Alana Wenk, director of advancement for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.
After conferring with residents, advisory committee members, focus groups, stakeholders and conducting surveys, the conservancy designed the project to prioritize accessibility and comfort, “especially for individuals and families with varying mobility and sensory needs,” Wenk said.
Designed by Pashek + MTR of the North Side, the new trail received support from the City of Pittsburgh’s Parks Tax Trust Fund. Other donors included the Edith L. Trees Charitable Trust, Clearview Federal Credit Union, Leslie Fleischner, Fleischner Family Charitable Foundation, FISA Foundation, Massey Charitable Trust, Robert and Mary Weisbrod Foundation, Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation, Sheetz, and Carole and Jerry Katz.
Photographer Joseph V. Smith, 37, of Crafton, said he previously felt unsafe at parks, but not on the new Frick trail.
Smith describes himself as “unapologetically autistic.” He works two part-time jobs and, on the side, photographs events.
“I attended the opening of the trail and took photos of a blue jay and a chipmunk on a tree. I photographed the heck out of it,” he said.
He gravitated to the trail’s nature observation areas. “I think the trail is a new frontier for exploration and it makes people comfortable and keeps them calm.”
Other trails can sometimes be too much, he said. “Everyone has their own sensory deficits and something like sound can be overwhelming.
“What makes it peaceful for me is making my art and just being one with nature.”
Along the trail is lots of seating for users to rest and observe the sounds and sights of nature.
Behind the environmental center, a diverse and interesting environment awaits, featuring native wildflowers, birds, butterflies, and chipmunks. You don’t hear traffic and typical city sounds in this urban oasis — and that is the point.
Sophie’s parents make the 45-minute drive from Bethel Park because there isn’t another trail like it in the region that they know of. And they have looked.
The Harts frequent South Park, but it can be difficult because of the chaos that comes with lots of children and parents chasing them.
“Here in Frick, it’s spread out,” she said.
Natural features close to the trail include fallen trees and moss instead of lawns, she added.
Amy Hart and John Novogurski of Canonsburg founded Sophie’s Potluck, a nonprofit that organizes outings for children, teens and adults with disabilities. Group outings are better, she said.
“If we are by ourselves, people might look at you. But when there’s a gang of us, nobody thinks anything about it.”
Finding events that welcome visitors with disabilities isn’t easy. In the past, Hart has made arrangements for Sophie and friends to attend high school and middle school theater dress rehearsals because they are more welcome there than at performances.
“Yes, I know if your great Aunt Edna comes to see your child, she will not want to hear Sophie giggling … I know Sophie can be loud,” Hart said.
She tries to find sensory-friendly stage productions and other events to make everyone comfortable and is making plans for a group visit to the new Frick trail.
Big bathrooms are a critical amenity. Hart is thrilled with the large bathrooms at Frick Park where she and Sophie can fit in.
“I know a lot of people who will scope out the bathrooms before they go to a place,” she said.
“When we go out looking for pumpkins in the fall, we cannot fit into a small porta-potty for me to change her.”
Hart calls the larger, handicap-accessible portable toilets “penthouses.”
Frick Park is rare for offering a smooth, hard-surfaced trail suitable for wheelchairs, strollers and walkers, along with a nearby parking lot, Hart said.
“This trail is great. It is truly made for everybody. It’s not just people with sensory needs or just people with wheelchairs.
“The people who don’t get it don’t realize they have a family member or friend that could be a stroke away, or a car accident away, or an injury away from a disability.”
Visitors include people undergoing rehabilitation who can easily maneuver their walkers, or just hikers checking out the Meadow Kaleidoscope. It offers reflections of meadow plants and mirrors to create unique artistic patterns.
Sophie romps around the trail wearing a bright pink bow so her parents can more easily track her.
The utility of some of the trail’s features will be lost on those without disabilities, Hart said. For example, one of the seating areas features high back seats.
“People in wheelchairs need the high back for support. Some people have low muscle tone or cannot sit up straight without something behind them. You don’t know that unless you live it,” she said.
The Discovery Pavilion is outfitted with tables for a mud kitchen, a nature lab or an art studio, and it offers easy wheelchair access.
To learn more about the sensory trail, visit pittsburghparks.org.
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