Crystal Lake Park District Nature Center — Attraction in Crystal Lake

I’m spoiled by the huge Audubon nature center in Chautauqua Co, NY. I have family living in the area now and we found this as something familiar to our Audubon experience. What makes this worth going to is the butterfly room talk by William Sutphin. He’s a great educator and very knowledgeable. The center has a few tanks of various critters, a table for children to do crafts, and a wonderful space to look out at the bird feeders, with helpful pictures on the inside wall to assist in bird identification (Baltimore Oriole!) . We were here when the weather wasn’t good. I wished we could have explored the pond and trails. Kids aren’t really exposed to nature like they used to. This center is a great...

The Crystal Lake Park District Nature Center is a joy to visit and play in as a break from our hike at Veteran Acres. My children absolutely love the area to explore animals in aquariums/terrariums as well as the butterfly room when it is open. We found many excellent resources here for upcoming events for the children such as mother daughter tea time and a woodcarving workshop for our oldest. In the building itself are heated bathrooms and a fun area for the kids to put on a puppet show with an abundance of puppets and other animals. A very fun place indeed! We hope to also host a birthday party here for one of our kids...

We had an amazing time! The inside has animals like Turtles, Hissing Cockroaches, Toads, and the Butterfly Garden. There are plenty of activities for kids with different interests. We especially liked the Beaver Damn & examining the bugs under magnifying glasses. After visiting, we walked through the beautiful trails outside and even pointed out the different trees we learned about inside. Shout-out to Bob who was wonderful and gave us a mini-tour with some awesome...