Have you ever had a Kinder Egg? There’s chocolatey goodness on the outside and a fun surprise on the inside. Toal Park is like the Kinder Egg of adventures…minus the chocolate. From the road, it looks like a small park with a nice playground and a pavillion , but as it turns out, there is more than meets the eye.
We’ve visited here before on our way to a lovely waterfront dinner with the kids at the Kitty Knight House, but didn’t have time to go beyond the playground. I noticed that there was a sign for a nature trail but didn’t think much of it then. We were in the area for another adventure over the weekend (sans playground) and D was disappointed because told him we were going to a park, and in his mind, park=playground. Therefore, we ended up at a playground.
We did get more than we expected when we followed the nature trail signs this time, including a praying mantis egg case. The trail is narrow and suprisingly hilly, but it isn’t long, so skip the stroller. When we got to the top of the hill, we were surprised by a view of water through the trees. I was also surprised to see little placards along the way identifying some of the trees. If you ever see these on a hike, make sure you stop! One of my favorite activities is to have D find a leaf on the ground that matches the leaf on the sign. We started on the red trail, and when we got to a fork, we took the blue trail out to a dead end and then doubled back to take the blue back to the playground. It was a great little hike!
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