Tree Hill Nature Center — Attraction in Jacksonville

We visited early in the morning and there wasn’t anyone else around. The main office has a series of natural history dioramas, educational displays, and then a LOT of tanks with a variety of animals in them: a diamondback terrapin, a skunk, a soft shell turtle, and rooms of turtles and snakes! There were even venemous ones! There’s also a turtle touch tank along with an alligator mount. Outside the main office building, using the map, you can walk around on the many trails that loop around. The goats have a skyway called Hoofin’ it Highway, there’s a baby alligator pond, and some gopher tortoises (that were still in their burrows). A barred owl exhibit and another alligator pond are on the other side of the Happy Hen House. If you walk further away from the main office, there’s a beautiful elevated boardwalk that takes you over some swamp areas and creek to the side with the community garden, shrub maze, and amphitheater. There are some trails that loop around through the woods that are well-maintained and relaxing to hike. Overall, it felt safe and almost under-used! There are so many little gathering areas and so much potential for educational opportunities for families and children. I really enjoyed our visit and will probably be back when I visit Jacksonville again. I would recommend it as a really nice place to visit with your kids if you want some quality time that isn’t overpriced and has a low-key, grassroots vibe. Also, I think that it would be really fun to do a Campout in the Canopy on the boardwalk for families! PS watch out...

Lovely place to spend a couple of hours in "real" Florida right in the Arlington neighborhood of Jacksonville. My 7 year old and I "hiked" most of the six marked trails, pet and fed the goats and chickens (who have great habitats and are very social), and explored the museum twice in a bit more than 3 hours. They unfortunately sustained some damage in Hurricane Irma's high winds and have a number of downed trees in the swamp area and have (as of 2/2018) closed two of the three boardwalks (both the ones leading to open water) due to damage sustained. The amphitheater near the East entrance is super cute and the community garden seems happy and productive. There is also a small hedge labyrinth in this area (off Stable Loop/Purple trail) coming from the West Entrance for the kids to run through. When the weather warms up the Butterfly Garden near the Main Office will reopen. There are many animals throughout the space, living, fossilized, and taxidermied (including a barred owl and gopher tortoise!) and interestingly it has a spring cooled HVAC and solar power for the main building. Overall we enjoyed our time and will certainly be back for the trails and critters. The museum could do with an update and hopefully they will get the needed funding soon. The concept and grounds are wonderful. Family memberships are only $40 per year and you can book the facility and staff for groups and parties including Animal Encounters. This is a great family and nature space close to downtown Jax! It only took me 12...

The best part of this place was the huge trees with Spanish Moss in the parking lot. They are beautiful! The office is nice, so therefore misleading to what you are paying for. The goat enclosure was clean, but you couldn't feed them (no food). You can only pet them over the fence, it's not a petting zoo. There were 2 turtles in a small enclosure and they were trying to find shade. There were 2 small alligators in a tiny, filthy "enclosure," which was basically a hot box with absolutely filthy water. We all felt so sorry for them. They have an awful existence in there. The owl was beautiful, but alone and also in an enclosure so small he couldn't fly at all. There were two huge pigs and we didn't see any water for them to get in. They looked miserable. The chickens were in a pen so small they could barely move. The trash cans were full to the top. Nothing appeared to have been cleaned in a really long time. The "butterfly sanctuary" was a storage shed type thing with nothing but dead potted plants and no butterflies. There was a couple of piles of trash off the side of the walking bridge, like construction trash that had been there a really long time. We felt sorry for the animals. This place was terrible and a complete...