Thursday, August 13, 2009

Hiking: Lakeside Nature Center Trail

Location: 4701 E Gregory Blvd Kansas City, MO 64132-1693
The trail is located behind Lakeside Nature Center

Review: This is not a stroller friendly hike, so leave them at home. Even if you think you got a jogging stroller, don't do it. The trail can be narrow at points and there are several falling trees that you have to climb over. Which the kids loved doing by the way.

This trail is about 3 miles long. However, if you have the little ones with you there is a cut through at the beginning which makes the trail about a mile. We had a group of kids under 4 and they seemed to do really well with only the under 2 crowd needing to be carried.

The trail itself though is one of the better ones that I have been on around KC and I thought it was very kid friendly. A couple of the members thought that some of the brush could be trimmed back a bit but it's not really noticeable.

It's a flat trail for the most part but does offer some hills that can give a little bit of a challenge to the kids. There's plenty of greenery but it's broken at parts by a stream that runs through the middle of the area. The stream was one of the awesome parts of this hike and the kids loved it. It's very picturesque. The riverbed is rock and it's easy to cross without getting anyone wet and offers some great opportunities to throw some rocks. Which kids don't like to throw rocks?

The scenery of this hike is the real joy of it. The sunlight would come through the trees in spurts, creating little highlights of the kids. I believe we found an aqua duct running through the forest and that was really cool because honestly, how often do you see something like this. There is also a weird tree stump that is worth seeing as I have never seen anything like it before. There is a group of trees growing around a big whole where another tree used to be. It's very strange but very worth it to spend some time there and check it out.

All in all, I would recommend this hike to everyone. We did it without backpacks and just carried the younger kids on our shoulders. With the cut through option it makes the trail short enough that this wasn't a problem especially when your stopping at the different things to see. Great nature hike and one that I bet we go back to again soon.






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