August 8, 2010
From the National Park Service website:
America’s Best Idea – the national parks – gets even better this year with several fee-free days at more than 100 national parks that usually charge entrance fees. Fee waiver includes: entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees. Other fees such as reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties are not included unless stated otherwise.
Mark your calendar for fee-free days left this year:
* August 14-15, 2010
* September 25, 2010
(Public Lands Day)
* November 11, 2010
(Veterans Day)
And to make the fun even more affordable, many national park concessioners are joining the National Park Service in welcoming visitors on this summer’s fee free weekends with the their own special offers.
Here’s a tip – many of your 392 national parks NEVER charge an entrance fee. So start Planning Your Visit!
Do click the links to get to additional information!!
Check out other ideas and activities to do with kids on https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com
by the author of the award-winning children’s book Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too!
🙂
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Posted by mygrandmasue
July 23, 2010
If you are in the San Francisco area with your family, a fun adventure awaiting you is the Presidio Habitats exhibition at the Presidio of San Francisco, a 1,491-acre National Historic Landmark and national park site. The FOR-SITE Foundation is partnering with the Presidio Trust to sponsor the exhibit through May 2011, Wed-Sun. See the Walking Map to find the eleven artworks scattered in the northwestern corner of the park. The pdf brochure can be downloaded here. The July 2010 Sunset Magazine had a nice article about it but I could not find it on-line. Here is another Sunset Magazine article about rediscovering the Presidio.
Check out other ideas and activities to do with kids on https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com
by the author of the award-winning children’s book Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too!
🙂
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Posted by mygrandmasue
February 11, 2010
Become a Wildlife Watch treasure hunter!
National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Watch is a national, nature-watching program created for people of all ages. The National Wildlife Federation can use your help to track the health and behavior of wildlife and plant species nationwide. You can also learn interesting tidbits on the Wildlife Watch website – wildlife news and facts, new ideas for attracting wildlife to your backyard and community. Check it out now on www.nwf.org/wildlifewatch and see what all is available to do!
Once you are finished with exploring your own back yard, you can get more ideas from NatureFind. It is an online destination database you can use to easily find a perfect spot for watching nature close to home. It also helps you discover what parks and trails are near you.
All you do is enter your zip code and check what activities you are interested in at http://www.nwf.org/naturefind to learn what is available around you!
Check out https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com for more interesting things and ideas! 🙂
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1 Comment | Backyard Activities, Nature Activities, Places to Explore | Tagged: child, children, family, fun, grandchild, grandchildren, granddaughter, grandma, grandpa, grandparent, grandson, Green Hour, hiking, hiking trails, kids, National Wildlife Federation, nature, nature study, NatureFind, NWF Wildlife Watch, Places to Go, Watching Wildlife, Wildlife | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
December 19, 2009
A park naturalist at the El Dorado Nature Center will be guiding a post-holiday trail walk on December 26 from 10 am until noon. The cost is $3/person and you must register in advance. Call 562-570-1745. Walk off some of those Christmas Dinner calories! 🙂
The El Dorado Nature Center is located at 7550 E. Spring St in Long Beach. Here are some Yelp reviews.
The Center is across the street from the El Dorado Regional Park, which has picnic areas, archery range, stocked lakes, pedal boats, physical fitness course, radio controlled model sailboat and model airplane areas, Caboose Corners train ride and other activities.
Junior Olympic Archery Development (JOAD) holds free archery instruction with their equipment or your own. There is a one hour safety/orientation class held regularly. For more information, to confirm class schedule or to schedule groups, call Aletha Donathan, Head Archery Instructor at (562) 688-9666.
For more interesting info, check out my website at https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com
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1 Comment | Nature Activities, Places to Explore | Tagged: archery range, biking, biking trails, California Hikes, California Hiking, California Trails, child, children, El Dorado Nature Center, El Dorado Nature Trails, family, fishing, fishing lakes, fun, grandchild, grandchildren, granddaughter, grandma, grandpa, grandparent, grandson, Green Hour, hiking, hiking trails, JOAD, Junior Olympic Archery Development, kids, Long Beach, Los Angeles County Hikes, Los Angeles County Hiking, Los Angeles County Trails, nature, physical fitness, Places to Go, radio controlled model airplane, radio controlled model boat, walking | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
November 30, 2009
In an effort to save over 200 panels of petroglyphs between the Interstate 80 and the Truckee River, the City of Sparks, Nevada, has joined a cooperative agreement with Nevada Department of Transportation and Washoe County. The non-profit, Reno-based Nevada Rock Art Foundation hopes to develop the Site. See more info in the Associated Press article I first saw in the Reno Gazette-Journal but here from the Nevada Appeal. According to research by the non-profit, present day American Indians do not know the meaning of the petroglyphs. Here are a few interesting articles, however:
Moonshineink.com
Field Trips for Families & Rockhounds from UNR
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
Bureau of Land Management
Cooperative Libraries Automated Network – Nevada
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Posted by mygrandmasue
November 29, 2009
A great website for searching on Nevada trails is nvtrailmaps.com for running, hiking, biking, mountain biking, cycling, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling and even more activities. You can search by location (county), activity, length of trail and elevation. Easy way to explore possibilities for spending some Green Hour Time with the kids and grandkids. 🙂
The information and maps on the nvtrailmaps.com website are developed and organized by Great Basin Institute.
See my other blogs at https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com/
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Posted by mygrandmasue
November 28, 2009
The Reno Gazette-Journal had a nice article written by Maggie O’Neill on the Keystone Canyon Trail. It is a nice hiking, running and mountain bike trail. Maggie refers to several books/guides in her article, including Mike White’s Afoot & Afield Reno-Tahoe. More info here as well.
See my other blogs at https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com/
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Posted by mygrandmasue
October 10, 2009
I love AUTUMN! I love the swirl of color of reds, golds, yellows and greens! I remember raking the leaves into a pile and then jumping into them! It’s a great time to do some family hiking in National Forests or National Parks or reserves or city parks or along the river or …..! The mixes of color are different at every curve in the path.
I found some really fun sites of additional information for you – For my niece Michele here is The Chemistry of Autumn Colors. Google images of fall colors are totally beautiful! The Wikipedia cornucopia of knowledge is bountiful. Here are color cams of colorful foliage. This New England Travel site has several webcams to cyber-watch the New England fall colors. Here is the Mono County, CA fall foliage guide. The Eastern US fall color guide is full of info, too! Any arboretum or park will be gorgeous, but here is a beautiful site from Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Iowa fall colors are described in USA Today. Mount Rushmore is also awesome! The Smokie Mountains are also changing color. In Alaska, Denali National Park is awesome in autumn, according to Margaret Bauman. The Western Michigan Tourist Association offers 26 different scenic driving tours for enjoying the autumn colors. Also a very decent website on autumn color is Total Escape on California off the beaten path.
Here is a science project for kids on Autumn Leaves.
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Posted by mygrandmasue
September 18, 2009
Lots of parks and reserves are listed at the Orange County website. The Orange County Register has a link with outdoor actities and events that has great ideas for family fun! Enjoy!
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Posted by mygrandmasue
September 16, 2009
The back of my Autumn Nature Conservancy magazine had a little ad on the back for Nature Rocks: Let’s Go Explore. It is a fun website to click through – complete with children’s voices and ducks! Here is a Staycation Guide (takes a while to load – it is a pdf file) on things to do as a family close to home. A fun feature to play with is Find Nature. Great photos can be seen here. Enjoy!
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Posted by mygrandmasue
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