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Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
We need a "hundred-acre wood"
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Anonymous
| DS, who is 3, is crazy about Winnie the Pooh and spent most of the summer playing in the "hundred-acre wood" of the Adirondacks. Now we're home and we need to find our own hundred-acre wood locally. Trouble is, not much of this area qualifies. Is anyone familiar with a state park or other forest nearby that might seem like a hundred-acre wood to a 3 year old? Thanks! |
Anonymous
| Rock Creek Park. |
Anonymous
|
We just got back from checking out the River Bend Nature Center in Great Falls where we moved just a few weeks ago.
We wandered through a dense wood, and after making the loop once, retraced our steps and went down a dirt path. We saw no one else on the trail. It were surprised to find that it took us to a quiet and very private-feeling rock beach on the Potomac. Because there's an island in the middle of the Potomac at this point, the river looks very narrow, shallow and still. There was a family there with naked kids playing in the water, the two dads sitting on rocks mid-stream fishing, and the two women cooking on a little grill on the beach. We stayed for over an hour. Our son stripped down and joined the other kids in the river. My husband taught all the kids how to skip rocks. Our dog ran all over exploring. It was just as beautiful and magical as the Hundred Acre Wood. |
Anonymous
| I don't know how far you want to go, but Catoctin Mountain Park in Thurmont, Md., is a really nice day trip. Cunningham Falls State Park is across the street and has a great trail that leads to a waterfall. We've done the hike a few times with small children. |
Anonymous
| Maybe Seneca Creek Park? |
Anonymous
| Mason Neck State Park in Lorton, Virginia. Great eagle-watching, too. |
Anonymous
| Green Springs Park in Annandale/Alexandria is great and has easy parking. Also a little closer in than other similar parks! There are some trails through the woods and a neat little house and gazebo. Might seem woods-like to a 3-year-old. |
Anonymous
| You've gotten some good suggestions, but there are a lot of candidates depending on where you live, how far you want to drive, and what type of experience you are looking for-- just watch out for the heffalumps. |
Anonymous
OP here. Thanks, all. Yes, we will look for heffalumps and, especially, woozles. We live very in close-in Mo Co so many of these suggestions would work for daytrips and some would also be good for regular visits. I was also thinking of an excursion to Theodore Roosevelt Island. Might be serious mosquitos, though. As far as the PP's question, I'm willing to drive 45 minutes or a bit longer for a regular thing. I'm looking for woods; a real forest experience. Honey trees a plus! 
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Anonymous
| not sure if it is dense enough - but how about the little falls path right off of the Capital Crescent Trail? You enter on Mass at Little Falls. |
Anonymous
| I haven't been in years, but according to the National PArk Service, Prince William Forest Park in northern VA is the "largest piedmont forest in the National Park Service and the largest greenspace in the Washington, DC metropolitan region." |
Anonymous
| In addition to other good suggestions that have been made, you might like Cabin John Reg. Park (there's a nice playground set in the woods) and Brookside Gardens (although it's much more "cultivated"). |
Anonymous
| Thanks so much, all. Keep the suggestions coming! |
Anonymous
|
The hiking path that connects Van Ness and Mass (across the street from Johnson's Nursery). There is a little stream that runs through part of it so be ready for some mud.
This green space is called Glover ..something ... Park and it runs all the way from to the Canal. There are also some wooded hiking trails marked on Foxhall between Nebraska and the GW Mount Vernon campus. I mostly see local people with their dogs walking into that area - but might be worth checking out. |