Monocacy Nature Center — Attraction in Bethlehem

The Monocacy Nature Center trail is overgrown and tick infested. I certainly understand ticks, especially with the deer, but if there was some maintenance along the trails and it wasn't so overgrown it would be much more enjoyable! There's an odd stenchy odor here and there, probably because no sun gets in a lot of the area due to ridiculous overgrowth. The creek is nice but very muddy to get down to in all of its locations. If you go across to the park where The pavilions are, that's nice. However, there are a lot of geese and goose poop so it's difficult to enjoy a walk in the grass. Especially if you want to walk over to the creek and relax. There is also only one place to cross the creek on that side, so if you're walking your dogs you have to go back from where you came. People are mostly nice. There's usually parking, but people who sit in their cars with tinted windows and linger can give a little creepy vibe. Finally, the parking area can definitely use work and repavement, with cutting back the trees that overhang along the perimeter of the parking area. I also want to also note that there's a significant amount of garbage. Curious as to who is supposed to take care of this Nature center trail...

Small paved parking lot and map kiosk by entrance to nature center trail. The trail is a mostly shady loop but is unmarked and overgrown. Some nice views of the Monocacy Creek on the trail we took. There were some unleashed dogs with hikers...

Very pretty place with great walking trails. The people around were nice, but parking can be hard to find! Also, I think someone lost their dogs!! I took pictures of them and tried to get them to come to me but they wouldn't. I hope...