During spring, summer, and fall seasons, Hike the Trails allows anyone to come in and explore the property through three managed trail systems.

• Red Trail: 3 miles of mature forest filled with maple, oaks, and beech trees.  It includes some difficult-to-climb hills and a woodland creek.
• Yellow Trail: 1.5 miles of moderate difficulty filled with mature forest and passes the vernal ponds.
• Blue Trail: 0.5 miles which travels through the grasslands, past the wildlife viewing building, and to the ¼ acre pond.

The Environmental and Nature Center is not always open to the public.  It is mostly restricted to programs and events held by the Boone County Cooperative Extension Service.  The gates are closed and locked when events are not occurring.  If you do not sign in, we either do not know you are on the property or do not have a way to reach you to tell you the Nature Center is now closed and the gates are being locked.

Once you sign in, we know that someone is on the property.  Without a sign-out time, we assume that you are still on the property when it is time to close and will call you to let you know we are closing.  It also alerts us to anyone that might be lost or hurt on our trail system if you have not returned by the time we are scheduled to close.  We will take the appropriate action to make sure all parties are safe and accounted for.

The facility was built for educational programming, which takes priority over recreational hiking.  Although exploration of our natural areas is highly important to learn about them, sometimes we have programming that needs to be uninterrupted by outside groups, due to this we ask that you only come during times that are open for the general public.

We also do not have the staff available for the Nature Center to be open at all times. Hike the Trails has only been possible with the help of Master Gardeners and background-checked volunteers.

Yes, there are bathrooms located at the main shelter building at the entrance of the property.

Sure!  There are picnic tables and trash cans under the main shelter building at the entrance of the property.  There are 3 additional shelter houses which include benches, but they do not have trash cans.  Please leave no trace when bringing lunch and snacks onto the property.

We ask that pets are not brought onto the property.

Yes!  Although we cannot accommodate all requests, we do take into account which days would be best for the community and try our best to make those days or times more readily available. 

Use the link to fill out the form to leave your feedback: Hike the Trails Feedback