Emily Oaks Nature Center — Attraction in Niles Township

This nature center is welcoming, with lots of fun programming. They have a nice playground for littles (

We went "Gnome hunting". The center claims that there are 25 gnomes hidden in the trees, and that all of them are visible from the trails, but we could only find 17, and several of them were tucked away so deep in the forest, that we only saw them because we were walking around off the trails.

They missed a HUGE (pun intended) opportunity to hide gnomes in unique locations by specifically using arts+crafts gnomes. My kids and I found a bunch of great locations where a traditional lawn gnome could have been hidden, if only they had decided to...

Beautiful little oasis of nature in the middle of busy city life. It's really a tiny little walking trail, mostly paved, stroller/wheelchair accessible. If you go off the paved path a bit on the dirt trail you can see the little lake too. My 2 year old was able to easily walk the whole trail. We had fun collecting leaves and acorns, and enjoying the beautiful warm fall weather and the trees changing colors. Nice playground by the parking lot, little nature center with...