At the end of the busy school fieldtrip season, we like to take our volunteers to someplace different.  This year, we chose the Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve and Environmental Education Center:  8 miles of trails through a variety of habitats including some very, very old trees, and a newly designed green nature center building.  Everyone brought a dish to pass and we had a fabulous lunch!

A Green Frog let me get fairly close for a picture… then jumped…

…and let me take another picture.

I’ve been seeing this around, but never looked it up.  The nice thing about going hiking with a whole group of naturalists is that someone in the group is bound to know the answer to your question!  We all learned from each other.  This is Nannyberry or Sweet Viburnum.

We like to visit other nature centers to see if we can steal any ideas.  We kind of liked this cement walk through a cattail marsh… We wondered what it would be like after a rain!  Could be fun.

Ginger was our guide.  Her FrogWatch signs were much cuter than Jeff’s.

Rex caught and calmed an Eastern Garter Snake so we could all get a nice picture.

Holly and Karen caught these fine American Toads… or should I say chameleons???

I like this idea for an interpretted trail!  No paper booklets to get lost or littered… inexpensive… easy to replace, or even change by season.   May try to get our Junior Naturalist group to create some for our trails!

Rex caught and calmed a Northern Water Snake for another reptilian photo opp.

There were some might old trees on the property.  This American Beech is reportedly 255 years old.  Karen practices her tree-hugging skills.

Reinstein is quite famous for the pink water lilies, which choke the ponds of any native lilies…  Very pretty, though!

It is always fun to reverse rolls – be the guests and let someone else lead the walk.  Many thanks to Ginger for the outdoor tour, and Meghan for the indoor tour (which I missed because I had to go back out and get some photos of the Scarlet Pimpernel).