Custom Nature Walks

A recent Wetland Walk for a child’s birthday

Bird walk on Promontory Point trails for adult group. Photo by Lizzie Ferguson

Designed for small groups

Customize your own nature walk at Magnuson Park! Spend 60 or 90 minutes with an experienced guide, walking the trails of Promontory Point, the Flyway, the Wetlands Complex, Kite Hill Forest, Children’s Garden and P-Patch, or other park areas!

You can choose to focus your walk or class on learning and practicing identification skills for Magnuson’s resident and migrant birds (including nesting Barn Owls), its wide variety of native plants, resident Pacific Chorus Frogs and Beavers, the amazing array of Dragonflies, or any combo of the above!

Walks can be scheduled at any time of year, during daytime or evening hours, and on weekdays or weekends.  Binoculars, ID guides, magnifying lenses, pond water sampling supplies, and/or other educational materials are provided for all attendees.  Great for Scout troops or Campfire Groups to get their badges, 4-H groups, church or garden club members, senior groups, birthday parties, home-school groups, friends and family get-togethers or other special celebrations, and more!

What attendees have to say:

“Thank you so much for a wonderful nature walk, it was exactly how we wanted to celebrate our son’s birthday”.  The Visoker Family

“The girls all had a great time and were eager to share the favorite things they learned and saw on the walk!  Overwhelmingly, the frog in the log was the best.  There were many others though, and the girls are all excited to see you again this summer.”  J. Bodley

“Thank you so much for the wonderful walk today. We all had such a great time. What an amazing habitat that is — thank you for helping us look a little bit closer.” A. O’Neill

Nature Walk Leaders: Emily Bishton and/or Nicole Caudana, and other Magnuson Nature Staff and Docents

1-hour walks: $80.00 minimum for the first 12 children and 2 adult attendees, and $6 per additional attendee.

90-minute walks: $100.00 minimum for the first 12 children and 2 adult attendees, and $6 per additional attendee.

2-hour walks: $150.00 minimum for the first 12 children and 2 adult attendees, and $7.50 per additional attendee.

Maximum attendees: 18

 

NEW “Birthday Package” Nature Walk and Party!

Enjoy a 1-hour Custom Nature Walk of your choice, followed by a 1-hour birthday party in our cozy and colorful classroom!  We’ve got a freezer for your ice cream, serving space for your cake or other treats, and plenty of kid-size tables and chairs.  Our staff will lead a group game for the kids when we arrive at the classroom, while you set up your refreshments.  We’ll help everything go smoothly including the cleanup and recycling at the end!

Birthday Package Fee: $150.00 for 12 children and 2 adult attendees. You supply all food, plates, utensils, and napkins*

* In order to cut down on our waste, we encourage you to bring compostable or reusable plates and utensils.  We will have these for purchase upon arrival if needed.

Reservations are available for Winter and Spring 2017 custom nature walks and Birthday Packages! For more information or to get started on scheduling a walk for your group, email us at

 

You are also welcome to have a picnic lunch in the park before or after your nature walk, with many informal, free locations to choose from, most with benches, other places to sit, or mowed lawns for picnic blankets.  We recommend previewing them before deciding which to use:

• Magnuson Community Garden and Children’s Garden
• The non-pavilion lakeshore areas around the boat launch and swimming beach, and playground

Magnuson Park also has outdoor picnic pavilions and other indoor rooms available to rent for birthday parties or other special events. For information on these options, contact the Magnuson Park rental office at

 

Important Note: We practice the American Birding Association’s code of ethics on all our nature walks.  We also request that you do not bring dogs on any of our nature walks unless they are certified service dogs, because they usually result in a much-reduced amount of birds and other wildlife seen throughout the walk.  Thanks for your understanding!