Hike and New Exhibit at Spring Lake Park and Discovery Center

The Environmental Discovery Center at Spring Lake Regional Park is hosting a naturalist-led family hike on the third Saturday of each month, and this Saturday’s hike is all about amphibians.

EDC naturalists will lead two, one-hour walks into the park to view salamanders and newts. The hikes leave the Discovery Center at 1 and 3 p.m. After each hike, families can return to the center to learn how to create amphibian habitats in their backyards. These will be easy to moderate hikes, with all ages welcome but strollers not recommended.

Hikes are $5 per family and hikers should wear warm clothes, good walking shoes and bring water. Heavy rain cancels.

While at the Discovery Center, also check out “Down the Drain: A Raindrop’s Journey from Cloud to Creek.”  This exhibit offers families a fun, hands-on introduction to the water cycle.

Children can pretend to be a raindrop by climbing the “cloud stairs” and then crawling through a model of a storm drain. They can create rain-related artwork and check out healthy water habitats at a tide pool with touchable, live sea creatures and an aquarium with fish from Spring Lake.

This exhibit focuses on Sonoma County watersheds, the effects of water pollution and the prevention of storm drain contamination. The exhibit runs through June 3.

Presented by Sonoma County Regional Parks and the Sonoma County Water Agency, the Environmental Discovery Center is at the Violetti Road entrance to Spring Lake Park in Santa Rosa and is open to the public 12-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Admission is included in day-use parking.