The grounding experience involves connecting the body to the earth in a direct way, which often means walking barefoot on the ground.
At the Barefoot Trail in Flagstaff, the nation’s first grounding park, guests can disconnect from technology and reconnect with nature while walking around in their bare feet.
In its second season, the park will be open from Wednesday, May 14, to Monday, Oct. 13. It offers a mile-long, manicured trail with dirt, water, sand, mud, stone and rocks.
The trail usually takes one to two hours to complete.
Last year, the trail was open from July through September. Leah Williams, founder of the Barefoot Trail, said they had six people on the first day, and they drew a crowd of almost 1,000 by closing day.
“It was such an affirmation of the whole reason I wanted to do the park. I think there's a lot of interest, and I think people want to get out, feel healthy and be outside. This is just a really fun way to do it,” Williams said.
Wiliams, who works in the HVAC industry, hails from the Seattle area. She spent a lot of her childhood outdoors and wants to encourage others to have similar experiences.
“I love to get outdoors. I love the fresh air. I love being in the woods. I grew up that way….It's a lifestyle I like to live. It’s something I think we should all have in our lives, if we can make the time for it,” Williams said.
Before being turned into a park, the area was a conservation open space. Williams said they have kept it in its natural state.
Williams said that walking barefoot can help to reduce positive ions absorbed from electronics, reduce stress, improv sleep and cardiovascular health and reduce inflammation and chronic pain.
“You can do this anywhere,” Williams said.
“You can do it at the beach. You can do in the forest. I’ve just made a park based on this concept to raise awareness, to bring it to people's attention, but to also incorporate a lot of fun activities. You get the reflexology in there too. You get temperature, texture and materials, and it just brings the world alive.”
Williams said the trail is maintained to make it an optimal experience for visitors.
“We manicure that trail,” Williams said.
“We sweep it every morning. It's totally clean to the best of our ability… We’ve removed rocks. We've removed sticks and pinecones to make it safe for you to walk. The middle of the path is sanded, so it's a very comfortable walk. When that gets hot in the middle of the summer, you can go to the edges, where we've kept natural dirt, which is cooler than the sand,” Williams said.
They provide bags for visitors to carry sandals or shoes to areas that may be uncomfortable for them due to temperature or texture.
Williams said during the experience, people become really in-tune with the surfaces on which they are stepping.
“When you have your shoes off, you’re really embracing the environment. When you walk through that mud, and it's squishing through your toes, it’s the temperature, and it's a texture that's real soft. When you're on the balance beam, or when you're stepping over river rocks, your foot is bent. You’re getting this nice movement and getting that circulation and that stretch in your foot…. Your senses come alive. Your awareness of where you’re at and what you’re doing is tenfold because your experience your environment,” Williams said.
The trail contains items of various textures to challenge guests and make them reflect.
“We put pinecones in this area, and people were hesitant to step on the pinecones. They didn't know what tree that came from. That’s not a Ponderosa pine pinecone. It’s a blue spruce pinecone, which is really soft,” Williams said.
Williams recommends guest come throughout the summer season to experience changing textures on the trail.
Williams said last year, they received feedback from parents, who were surprised by how engaged their children were.
“We create the safety for you to really let go and enjoy it. There's a lot of fun mixed in there too to make it interesting. I can't tell you how many parents came up to me last year and said, ‘I have never seen my kid walk for a mile or more and not complain about it,” Williams said.
“They were having fun. They were excited. If we were just in the forest, and we were walking on a trail, they would be complaining. But I haven't heard one complaint…’The kids didn't know they were walking a mile. They just went from each fun station to fun station.”
This year, the trail will have extended play areas, including new swing sets for families.
They have also installed new features such as bridges.
There will be more reflexology stations this year. Williams said that at these stations, guests can test the durability, flexibility, and circulation of their feet.
Throughout the trail, they will have adventure stations for people of different ages, where guests can do activities such as going on100-foot-long ziplines.
Game stations will feature large yard games such as Connect 4, Tic Tac Toe, cornhole or Jenga.
Williams said the activities are as popular among adults as children.
“All the adults turn into big kids when they come through the park. It's really fun to see. It's very nostalgic for those of us that are older. We just ran around in our bare feet and wandered through the woods,” Williams said.
Along the path, guests can experience mud pits and water stations, which were really popular last year.
Along with the chance to be active in an outdoor environment, the path also offers a chance to experience Flagstaff’s plants and wildlife.
“We’ve got waves of flowers in different months, so it’s just gorgeous coming up. It’s prolific. We get a Lupine-style flower, and then we get oranges. We get yellows. We have mushrooms come up, and then we have some flowers in late August/September. So, there's always something new to see at different times of the summer season,” Williams said.
Williams said that they often see birds, chipmunks and deer on the trail, especially earlier or later in the day.
An onsite boutique sells items such as T-shirts, snacks, lotions and soaps and foot reflexology items.
For families that want to relax or have a bite to eat, the park offers seating and a picnic station. Guests are allowed to bring their own food into the picnic area.
Homeschoolers and students can get reimbursed for their trips to the trail through Arizona’s Education Savings Account funding.
Guests have the option of purchasing individual tickets for the day, season passes or gift cards for others.
Reservations are highly recommended, as groups are let out onto the trail in time slots.
“I would hate to have you come and be backed up in a line on a natural trail in the forest. That just does not even sound remotely fun. We stagger our groups every 15 minutes, groups of 10 every 15 minutes, to give you that individual experience,” Williams said.
Barefoot Trail
WHEN: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. fWednesday, May 14, to Monday Octo. 13
WHERE: Barefoot Trail, 17440 Forest Service 146W Road, Bellemont
COST: $14 adult reserved ticket, $15 same-day adult walk-up tickets, $12 children’s tickets, free for children 2 and under, special $10 discounts for groups of more than 10
INFO: thebarefoottrail.org
