Dunwoody Nature Center, Georgia
We ventured out to the Dunwoody Nature Center from my parents’ house in Atlanta. I had heard wonderful things about this playground nestled in the woods and wanted to check it out. I was rewarded with a nearly all-day adventure with the kids on a beautiful spring day.
The Nature Center is free to use. It has clean restrooms, plenty of picnic tables, hammocks, geocaching and one of the best playgrounds we have encountered in Atlanta.
The parking lot is set above the park. When you first arrive you may even feel underwhelmed. You have to follow the path into the woods a bit before you start to see the playground equipment.
The showpiece is a large double slide climbing tower. It is so awesome that I had to venture up it and take the slides for a spin myself.
There is also a smaller slide structure and clubhouse that seemed equally as entertaining to my kids.
As you venture further back into the play area you encounter a few different types of swings and climbing structures.
Go down the stairs to discover a maze of hammocks that are perfect for a bit of relaxing. There is also a small creek here that the kids enjoyed jumping over
Then the Littles set off down some of the nature paths. We saw several deer and evidence of plenty of other animals.
The big draw though came from the large creek that runs through the center of the nature center property. We were there on a lovely April day. The boys couldn’t resist the draw of the creek and before I knew it they had their shoes off and were wading in the pools. They used rocks to create little dams to force the water down different parts of the rocks.
They could have played in the creek all day. We kept migrating to different parts of the creek that offered different types of adventure.
We also found a great full-size geocache hidden in the park, which the boys were able to do entirely on their own.
We only left because I was ill prepared food-wise for a full day adventure. Had I brought a full packed lunch, we could have stayed all day adventuring here.
It’s well worth the little jaunt, just outside the perimeter of Atlanta, to enjoy this lovely piece of nature with kids.
