The Cortez Journal
The Durango Nature Center is now open on Saturdays through Oct. 31, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The center is free for members and children 12 and under, and $5 for nonmembers. It offers miles of hiking trails, river play, a picnic pavilion, a junior naturalist badge and an interpretive trail.
The upper 35 acres of the site is composed of public access and parking area, a welcome center, gift shop, and docent greeter. In addition, visitors will see prairie dog colonies, bird boxes, a children’s habitat play space, an ancient ponderosa pine cross-section with marked rings, xeriscaped landscaping, and a sage-rabbitbrush habitat. A footpath leads visitors down to 105 acres along the Florida River. There, trails wander through a wide variety of habitats – riparian, meadows, oak woodlands, piñon-juniper forests, and desert arroyos. Trails are marked with signs at ending points and junctions, as well as with interpretive markers and maps along the way.
Workshops on at least two Saturdays per month. Visit http://www.durangonaturestudies.org/center for details and directions.
