This past weekend while my family was in Harrisburg, we stumbled upon Wildwood Park, located just at the outskirts of the city. We hadn’t planned to hike when we set out for the capitol, so when we discovered this beautiful park, we eagerly altered our plans and stop to enjoy nature. I was reminded that you don’t always need to have a planned outdoor trip to have a fantastic adventure. Sometimes the opportunity just falls into your lap! It’s good for the whole family to be spontaneous sometimes and change things up a bit to get some fresh air and exercise.

There are multiple trails to choose from at Wildwood Park for hiking, biking, picnicking, bird watching, and exploring. The trails vary from easy and fairly flat, to much more difficult with steeper inclines. Several of the trails can be looped together to add distance or different surroundings. While we were there, we ended up combining Towpath Trail with Wildwood Way Trail, making it a total of about 3.1 miles. What a great choice we made! Towpath Trail offers gorgeous views of Wildwood Park Lake. We saw so many different types of birds and some truly amazing fall foliage. Miles, my toddler, loved stopping to look at the various types of fallen leaves and crunching them under his feet while Lucas, 8, enjoyed spotting the birds and running up the long, rolling hills on Wildwood Way Trail.

Most of the trails here seemed to be stroller friendly. The Delta Boardwalk and the North Boardwalk are wheelchair accessible. We checked out the Delta Boardwalk, which runs 0.5 mile through a marsh and wet woodland. Here we saw so many geese and ducks, which are Miles’s favorite.

Be sure to stop at the Benjamin Olewine III Nature Center, too. It is very child-friendly with learning and reading centers for kids. The hours are limited, so check here before visiting if you want to make this part of your trip.

Dogs are not allowed in this park. There are areas for picnicking in the park, but there are also plenty of restaurants in Harrisburg to choose from. Wildwood Park also has several community events, including a Wild about Art Series. December’s event features making natural ornaments for parents and children. For information, check out http://www.wildwoodlake.org/events/