Hockessin, DE holds a special place in my heart since I called it home for a few months during my internship at Mt. Cuba Center. I love the rolling hills, narrow winding roads and beautiful forests. Ashland Nature Center is right down the road from Mt. Cuba, so I knew it would be fabulous!
Ashland has so many great features that I don’t know where to begin. It makes sense to talk about the Nature Center first and wow, it is beautiful! Unfortunately, it was closed for the Winter so we will definitely be visiting in the warmer months or perhaps for one of the many educational programs offered there. All of their programs can be found on the blog calendar, as well as on the Delaware Nature Society page. We also loved seeing the covered bridge, railroad tracks and lodge and look forward to seeing the butterfly house in the Summer.
The first thing we noticed after we got out of the car was that there were steps…everywhere! Like I said, Hockessin is hilly terrain, and Ashland is no exception. We just had O with us in the stroller (D was hanging with Dad for the morning), so we wandered around until we found a ramp up the hill to the nature center, where the trails begin. Unfortunately, once we got up there we had to head back down some of the steps to get to the trail we wanted so we just had O hop out and I took the stroller down backwards. Therefore, I would say that Ashland is definitely not handicap friendly, but is moderately stroller friendly as long as your child and get in and out as needed to traverse obstacles.
We really enjoyed walking alongside Red Clay Creek and O loved seeing the bubbles where the water was flowing quickly. We even saw some ducks and geese along the way. The marsh area will be a super fun place to visit when it’s warm out as I’m sure it’s full of fun critters.
Winter gives us such a different perspective on each place we visit. It looks SO different when everything is brown, gray and dormant. I checked out some pictures on Instagram that other visitors took when everything was green and lush. It looked like a completely different place! My favorite thing about cold weather adventures is that we can see things normally hidden by the foliage like bird nests, wildlife and the features of the trees themselves. The beautiful bark, the shape of the branches, the little hidey holes, etc. While on the Floodplain Trail, we came across the most beautiful sycamore tree with the perfect branch for climbing. Although O didn’t care to participate, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, however it became very clear that I am not quite as nimble as I was when I climbed trees 20 years ago… Make sure you try to find this tree when you go and try not to have any emergency room visits 🙂
 |
| Some of our Winter finds! |
Leave a Reply