Hike

Join naturalists from Joppa Flats Education Center on a nocturnal hike through Rough Meadows underneath the Hunger Moon! We'll peek at the stars, go on stealth walks, and investigate the behaviors that animals use to survive the cold New England winter. We'll return to Joppa Flats for hot cocoa and s'mores over the fire pit. This is a tween/teen program.

With the lush green fringe of plants and lily pads gone, the winter pond looks deserted. Where did all the turtles, frogs, and insects go? Come learn about the amazing adaptations these animals have developed to survive winter and some cool things about ice. We will stroll along the boardwalks at Waterfowl Pond to see who is around in the winter and who has gone into hibernation. On our return, we'll enjoy a delicious cup of hot chocolate.

If you have ever seen tracks in the snow, sand, or soil and were curious about what made them, then this is the program for you!  Refuge staff will lead you through the basics of identifying common animals through the clues that they leave behind.  A brief introduction to animal tracks and other sign in the visitor center classroom will be followed by a trip to the refuge where we will look for tracks and attempt to determine their owner’s identity.  

Welcome the New Year with a brisk hike through the Crane Wildlife Refuge! We’ll begin with a small fire on the beach – bring a slip of paper with regrets from the past year, and we’ll send them up in smoke. Then we’ll cleanse our psyches with a trek through the starkly beautiful landscape of the dunes; trails winding along the sandy hills, blood pumping, the smell of the sea in the air – what a perfect way to to enter into 2018! At hike’s end we’ll warm up with hot cider.