I love nature. Being outdoors makes me happy. Being outdoors at home is awesome. That said,…read morealthough I think I have a sweet patio set-up at my apartment (does anyone want to give me a hammock to make it even better?), it's incredibly tiny and faces the parking lot -- so there's not a lot of 'nature' in my 'backyard.' Because of this, I seek out nature centers, forest preserves, and farms quite often. I was excited to find this place not too far from where I live. It also has a couple geocaches (http://www.geocaching.com/) scattered about, so I was eager to bring my husband here a couple times.
This little nature center is tucked away in a lovely Itasca neighborhood. There is a small parking lot, a barn-like building with an greenhouse/workshed (the actual center), a little shelter with picnic tables, a bridge leading to a couple paths around the grounds, and some prairie. Trees surround the grounds and a little creek runs through. It's cute. It's small. It isn't really much.
The walking path is quick. From looking at maps, it seems the grounds are bigger with three different trails, but we only found one short, paved trail with a couple paths leading towards the aquatic center and neighborhood. Maybe we didn't look hard enough. At one point we thought we found more trails but ended up wandering through a private yard before realizing our mistake. Weird.
I can't say much for what's inside the center. Both times I came (weekends, during hours), the building was closed. There were a couple cage areas outside for birds or other creatures, but I never saw any. In fact, I didn't see any animals here -- just the occasional dragonfly or bumblebee. Oh, and there were some lovely ducks on the little creek that runs through the property.
Our visits were very short. And we picked up a geocache, which is always good.
I like places with quiet areas or long walking paths or animals to look at. This place didn't really have any of those. It's a nice little addition to the neighborhood, and maybe a good place to take your kids for a bike ride, but just isn't for me.