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Four Discovery Quest Trails Provide Unique Family Outings
Hudson Highlands Nature Museum offers Fall adventure
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Fall has just nicely settled in. You'd like to find at least one more family outing, a completely new adventure that celebrates the season before winter arrives. Something with a sense of discovery - that will bring your family together. Something creative and invigorating to be remembered for years to come. Maybe even educational - not that you would dare tell the kids that!
The Hudson Highlands Nature Museum offers not just one such adventure - but four. The four Discovery Quests are trails - but they are not your average hiking trails. For starters they range from an easy, flat, halfmile walk to considerably more vigorous hikes of almost two miles. Discovery Quests lead you past ponds, through old fields and into the heart of the forest. You can hike for twenty minutes - but you're more likely to stay for two hours.
But it is the "quest" in the Discovery Quests that really makes this a unique and memorable family experience. By definition, a Quest is "an adventure in search of something" and each of the four trails will challenge you to make twelve different discoveries. You'll receive a guidebook for each trail - whether you choose just one or feel up to the challenge of exploring all four paths. It's very doable in one visit. The trails total just less than four miles and Quests vary from 45 to 90 minutes in duration. The terrain is diverse and ranges from flat wheelchair-friendly surfaces to more rugged hikes through forested slopes.
Pick up your guidebooks at the Outdoor Discovery Center. Start with the Pond Quest, Woodland Quest, Field Quest or Hiking Quest, then you are off and hiking - and discovering. Twelve marked posts along each trail will challenge you and your family with riddles that test your powers of observation - and your vocabulary. And - you'll have to talk to each other to complete each Quest. What a concept!
Pond Quest is a short, halfmile trail that meanders past ponds and cattails and platforms that offer excellent wetland views. Field Quest is also a flat, half a mile hike that explores interesting, old farm fields before looping back through open woodland. The mile-long Woodland Quest has some moderately hilly sections and is an intriguing forested path that will improve your tree identification skills and your knowledge of animal habitats. At just less than two miles, Hiking Quest offers the most challenging hike with moderately rugged hills. Look for a variety of geologic features and signs of past human activity - and be sure to bring sturdy footwear.
In between challenges along each trail simply relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of autumn - from beautiful fall colors and bird calls to turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks soaring high overhead to the white-tailed deer and giant tulip trees of the forest.
As you complete each Quest you'll be challenged to use the clues that you have discovered along the way to unlock a hidden message. Get it right and your group will be rewarded with a signed certificate to keep as a souvenir.
Next weekend, when you are searching for that unique autumn adventure, consider taking your family on a Quest!
The Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, formerly known as the Museum of the Hudson Highlands, is located between Highland Falls and Cornwall, NY on Route 9W near Angola Road. The Outdoors Discovery Center will be open from 10am until 4pm Saturday and Sunday through October 28. Admission is $3 per person over the age of 4, museum members are free. Quest Guidebooks are $5 each and may be shared. For more information call 845-534- 5506, ext. 204 or visit the museum website at www.hhnaturemuseum.org.
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