Our county includes eleven local parks which offer special activities, biking trails, horse trails, hiking trails, dog parks, and mostly free educational activities for families.
We try to take advantage of our local parks on weekends. One of our favorites is located about ten minutes south and is named after President Richard Nixon. The park contains trails within the 170 acres - including a pond, a creek, meadows, and an environmental education center. The park was donated by the Bob Hoffman family (the previous founders of York Barbell) in 1968. They host a maple sugaring weekend, reptile week, and week-long educational camps for kids.
We love hiking the trails along the creek and have spotted turtles, water snakes, deer, and what we thought was a baby beaver (turned out to be a muskrat).
One of our favorite parts of the park is the environmental educational center. Included are over 180 specimens of wildlife donated by William Koller - collected during his lifelong hunting career of 75 years. This collection includes: a Kodiak bear, polar bear, cheetah, leopard, moose, deer, black bear, foxes, warthog, and many more. The collection is stunning - valued in the millions and incapable of being replicated today (due to conservation efforts).
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| the pond where our muskrat friend lives |
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| the environmental education center |
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| Emma and Kate with some of the wildlife |
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| isn't this beautiful? |
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| a Pennsylvania black bear |
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| their bee-hive behind plexiglass - so interesting to watch! |
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| an Eastern box turtle |
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| a copperhead who recently shed his skin |
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| some of the smaller specimens |
We are quite thankful to live in an area where we have access to outdoor and educational space for our kids to enjoy.
It looks wonderful. Yes you are lucky you have this nearby. You're always doing something interesting as a family. Cant wait until I can start taking Little P places like this!
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