Martin Park Nature Center
We took advantage of the lovely weather we were having this weekend to take our first trek out to the Martin Park Nature Center in OKC. We've driven by so many times, and I've commented that we should go there sometimes, so we finally got around to it.
You start off at the front of the park with a cute playground to the East. Gabriel enjoyed the spinning mushroom (Brian had fun taking his turns as well, as did some other dads. lol). They have a story circle and a covered picnic area as well. A creek runs by the playground and through the park which made for some nice scenery and wildlife viewing. There is a Nature Center that you can walk through with nice interactive viewing of various reptiles, bugs, and skeletons for the kids. We then set out on the trails of which there are three. We went with A because it was the shortest and these kiddos are pretty much responsible for walking on their own now.
We encountered some turtles in the creek and a few box turtles in the brush along the path. We saw a bunch of different birds, including a cardinal and blue jay.
Gabriel kept trying to explain to the animals that they didn't need to run or hide because we weren't going to hurt them.
Gabriel enjoys a good bridge. They make Lorelai a little nervous so she did get carried over most of the bridges.
Yeah...the three year old still needed to be carried a bit, but Gabriel was a real trooper and kept up his pace the entire time. It was so nice to walk through the woods, but we did have to be careful of poison ivy off of the main path.
Our coolest find (after even seeing a ton of giant fish in the creek) had to be a beaver dam. We could see where the beavers had chewed down the trees, and some hoof prints where deer had walked by.
All in all I think it was a big hit and will be a place we will certainly go to again when the temperature permits. :)
You start off at the front of the park with a cute playground to the East. Gabriel enjoyed the spinning mushroom (Brian had fun taking his turns as well, as did some other dads. lol). They have a story circle and a covered picnic area as well. A creek runs by the playground and through the park which made for some nice scenery and wildlife viewing. There is a Nature Center that you can walk through with nice interactive viewing of various reptiles, bugs, and skeletons for the kids. We then set out on the trails of which there are three. We went with A because it was the shortest and these kiddos are pretty much responsible for walking on their own now.