We recently visited Teatown as a family and had a wonderful time there. Teatown is a little less than a 1.5 hour drive from Brooklyn. We drove and parked in their parking lot for a $5 charge as non-members.
First, we visited their nature center which had some local animals on display: turtles, snakes and a salamander.
We tried one of their easier hikes first, the Twin Lakes Loop to the Waterfall Trail and arrived at a beautiful waterfall where we enjoyed our picnic lunch. We hiked back via a different trail, the Hilltop Trail. The first two trails were quite easy hikes, perfect for young children. The hike back via the Hilltop Trail was more challenging but we made it! All in all the hiking time was 3.5 hours. Ethan, 5.5 years old was great on the trail and completed the full hike happily! I carried, Lillian who will be 4 next month, in the toddler carrier for about 30-40 minutes along the Hilltop Trail. Other than that she hiked along happily. I’d definitely recommend this hike for families with young children!
Something that I think helped keep the crankies away on this long hike was this book…
Backpack Explorer: On the Nature Trail
The kids each had a copy and LOVED it! I thought we’d pick one page to focus on such as “leaves” or “insects” but they seriously found every single nature item in the book. This is probably why the hike took so long, since we stopped to check our book and identify mushrooms, leaves, insects, frogs and tracks. But it was wonderful to watch them be such careful observers of nature.
Ethan’s favorite part was finding a frog and climbing near the waterfall area!
Lillian loved finding lily pads and lillies floating in the water!
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