Review: Honey Hollow, Bucks County Audubon Society

Outdoor Appeal: 10Setting: old barn converted to a stunning self-serve nature center, smooth hiking trails, a brook, bird blinds, a pond and a waterwheel

Explorable Op's: A ton. The nature center alone is an hour or so worth of exploring.

Difficulty: Easy. Although we have not explored all of the trails and property at Honey Hollow, it seems that most of the treks are short, flat and relatively uncluttered by roots and rocks.

Facilities: Civilized. Actually, they are top notch. The nature center is the best around and the bathrooms are immaculate.

Review: This is a must for a Bucks County outdoor enthusiast with kids. We've gone several times and it's always been fun. Walking into the nature center is like walking into a cathedral. The high ceiling brings you to silence. Timbers show off the skeleton of the barn and wooden steps lead up to the learning center loft. The bottom floor has some tables and folding chairs to work at along with some taxidermied animals, history placards and "please touch" tables. The "please touch" tables we've seen are skulls/bones and nests, feathers, eggs rocks and trees. The second floor learning loft has an open view to the bottom floor, is carpeted and is down right cozy. It's flanked by two walls that have wooden painted nature puzzles. It's a bit hard to describe but you pull out a piece of the wall, which is shaped like a leaf or an animal, and then you look on the back of it to find the name. In warmer weather there are aquariums with animals. We saw two tanks, one with turtles and one with a lizard. There are nature themed jigsaw puzzles, stuffed animals (to play with), some more taxidermied animals and a reading room with comfortable sofas and chairs. It's a great place to go even on a rainy day. The trails around the property are meant for bird watching so they are pretty well maintained to assure watching birds instead of watching your step. We took the pond trail on one of our visits and I found that it was a good length for small kids. Plus it has a lot of interesting things to see along the way to keep the momentum of the hike rolling. Our first stop was the waterwheel, which doesn't actually work. But it's still neat to look at. But beware, there is a nesting animal in the rafters that was unhappy with us peering into it's home. I'm still not sure what it was but it sounded none too friendly. From the waterwheel we headed around the pond over the bridge that crosses the outlet steam. This was a fun place for both Max and Frank to run around. They were a bit frustrated that they couldn't get down to the steam, but there are other trails for creek exploration on the property. The next stop were the docks. There are two docks on the far side of the pond. We could see sunfish from both and had a good time looking at our reflections in the water. Moving on from the docks the hike gets slightly more challenging with a few hills. You can complete the loop around the pond by crossing the inlet stream and heading back to the nature center or you can continue on a path that follows the stream to where it crosses the gravel road that runs through the property. We checked out the inlet stream but instead of crossing it, we back tracked and took the path that follows the stream. We made it back to the gravel road and hiked back up the big slope to the nature center. The whole walk from start to finish took about 45 minutes. The back of the nature center has a large slate covered patio. We set up there for lunch. It was a perfect place for the boys to run around and eat at the same time. Once we finished lunch we headed back into the nature center to take a last look at some of the curiosities we found. We signed the guest registry and we were on our way.

Recommendations: If you've got binoculars and the time, this is a great place to see birds, although it not really possible if you're looking after small kids. The pond trail is a sure bet because the waterwheel, the bridges and the docks provide built in rests and give some incentive to keep on moving to the next destination. Plus there is a good chance you'll see some animals in or around the pond. If you are itching to get out of the house on a rainy day, the nature center is a perfect way to get outdoors without getting wet. Honey Hollow is a big thumbs up. Hope you enjoy. Happy trails.

Review: Peace Valley Park, Indian Path trail

Outdoor Appeal: 10

Image via Wikipedia

Setting: Lake Galena, nature center, hiking trails, hike/bike path, Neshaminy Creek

Explorable Op's: A ton. Outside of the organized sports realm, Lake Galena and Peace Valley Park together have most outdoor activities that someone in the Delaware Valley would care to take on with kids. Hiking, biking, paddling, sailing, birding, picnic areas, playgrounds. With the exception of camping, the park has as much to offer as most state parks.

Facilities: Civilized. The nature center has restrooms, changing tables for infants, a learning center, taxidermed wild animals, gift shop, views of the lake as well as coffee, tea and hot chocolate for a nominal donation.

Review: There are lots of different trails in the park to explore. So when looking at the trail map it may seem a bit daunting to try to figure out what might be a managable hike for you and them. Fear not! The trail system forms a lot of small loops that criss cross over one another so there is almost always a "short cut" back to the car if you need to end the hike quickly. The day we set out I wanted to make sure that we had a pretty short trail with a few neat destinations along the way. I've found that it is easier to keep the 2 year old walking when there is a surprise waiting around the bend - and I do try to hype the surprise and ask him what he thinks it might be to spur him on when the trail gets "tough." The one this particular day I chose to hike Indian Path to Pond Path, a short zigzag on Woods Edge and finish up the loop on Pine Path. I'm guessing it might be a half mile total. I chose this loop because it has three surprises along the way. On Indian Path there is a Indian shelter built out of saplings and tree bark for the siding. From the inside you can see how it was made - pretty neat! We spent about 20 minutes checking it out which seems like a long time to be contained in a small space but it was a real wonderland for both Max and Frank. From the shelter we headed to Pond Path and made our way towards Woods Pond. It happened to be very muddy the day we went so Max couldn't decide if he was all that excited about how sloppy the trail was. The pond wound up being a bit of a problem in that Frank, the one year old, wanted to go in and Max wanted to get take off his sandals to shake off the mud. So we didn't stay very long because I didn't really want to comply with either of their wishes. We started our walk back and came to a small stream that crossed over Pond Path. It was flowing nicely because of all the rain we had just had. It turned out to solve the broken dreams we left behind at Woods Pond. Max could take his sandals off and wash the mud off and Frank could easily walk in the water. The stream had a sandy bottom and was only a few inches deep. We spent another 20 minutes walking back and forth over the stream, gathering rocks, throwing rocks back in, setting leaves afloat and watching them get swept away by the currents. Neither of the boys wanted to leave, but time had marched on towards lunch and curiousity was taking us a little too far up the stream. So we packed ourselves up, took the zigzag on Woods Edge and headed back to the parking area by way of Pine Path.

Recommendations: Truth be told, it's not easy to hike with small children. They meander, tire quickly, want to be carried, have to go to the potty, trip, fall and all kinds of other dilemmas pop up along the way. But I think even a two year old gets a real sense of accomplishment when they see that they have made it back to the car - snacks and drinks awaiting. And time spent in the woods is never wasted in my opinion. So when hiking with kids it's always best to be prepared to do very little hiking. If it's possible, have a few neat stops along the way. And "neat" is a perception you will need to project to the kids. Give them time to exlpore, be patient when they don't want to walk further, flexible and above all else, make it a fun adventure. The woods is a great place to let kids' curiosity run wild - well, not too wild. There's poison ivy out there! But giving them some freedom will make it fun for everyone. And in the end it doesn't really matter what you do outdoors. Just getting out can be enough. Happy trails.