Hidden Oaks Nature Ctr Reviews

Loved bringing the kids to all their local playgrounds.

There are lots activities for children. A great place for learning and hands-on discovery. If you take children on the trails you must watch them carefully or near the wooded side of playground there is a lot of poison ivy everywhere even on the edges of the trails.

Great place to take younger kiddos. Fun activities inside, nice nature walk on the grounds and playground nearby.

Good nature center. Also has a softball field, basketball court, tennis court, and picnic area with double larger grill and shelter. Nature trails are good too.

Great campfire and discussion about stars and space.

There is a visitors center with bathrooms and 3 walking trails behind that. A tadpole frog pond is close to the front . We have seen deer, squirrels and a fox.

Jack-o-lantern Mushroom.
Very poisonous

This is our favorite nature center in the area. Lots of live animals in tanks (frogs, snakes, turtles, etc), learning exhibits, things to touch, and so many toys! The trails around the center could have been marked better but the area is pretty and we still had a good time. Enjoyed a picnic lunch at a shady table outside.

We love it, they have animals and fun toys there, a beautiful trail and a playground. It's very convenient for our little explorers.

Bring your hiking boots because their is a refreshing creek you'll enjoy splashing water and having fun. My 10 & 12 year old boys loved this place. We skipped rocks and made water dams until it was time for lunch.

This place was a pleasant surprise. It was right after a rain so the trails were a little muddy but still well worn and maintained. There is also a nice play playground and bbq and a picnic area.

Nice nature center with many interesting live displays

Indoors section is small but great for little ones. Live turtles, snakes and toads!

I have attended both Girl and Cub scout events here and every program was incredibly well done. They were organized, efficient, and managed to keep the kids' attention - even the 7 year old boys. We've enjoyed earning badges, learning new skills, campfires with s'mores, and meeting animals we'd never seen before. I enthusiastically recommend this for families looking for healthy, safe, and fun activities with the kids.

Love the nature center and the folks that work there.

Fun for kids. Free. Easy to manage multiple children there. Worth return visits.

Excellent birthday party location with hands on animal fun

Nice but relatively small park...No real excitement for me or my GSD!!

Amazing! Staff knowledgeable and engaging. Very interactive and great fun!

Nice place to show the wild live to the kids. Very detailed and organized and a very friendly place. If u have kids this is the one place to go in Annandale. Recommended.

Really neat little spot! Nice area to take a walk in as well!

I love this place! Peaceful activity place for kids! Hangout with nature!

Beautiful place to hir hike
Hi Relax for a while

Great kids programs. The staff is very good and the facility is excellent.

Good field trip destination for the 4-6 set. Not so great for older than that, regardless of starting origami are grades k-4. There is a lack of structure. Great for a single child or a couple children. Staff was friendly and knowledgeable.

The staff is always helpful and knowledgeable. They make sure all your questions are answered. In this visit, they took in the juvenile black snake that found its way out of the cold and into my warm living room. My kitties were sorry to lose what they regarded as their toy, but Hidden Oaks was happy I brought him to them!

Very educational and interesting place to take kids. They'll have fun with all the activities there, along with the friendly and helpful staff. There are a few hiking paths just outside of the facility too. Our 4 year old had a blast watching the frog pond, which was very active the day we went.

The Hidden Oaks Nature Center has lots to see and do - they have live turtles, frogs and snakes, plus a surprising variety of games, puzzles, costumes, and learning tools for younger children. The naturalists and volunteers are knowledgeable and dedicated. There is a wooded well-marked, relatively flat trail perfect for beginning hikers that circles the building. My only gripe is the lack of parking - if you can't find a spot in the small circular parking lot in front of the Nature Center, you can drive back out to Hummer St., make a right and then a right, and park in the secondary park lot (which requires about a quarter mile forest hike to get back to the Center.)

I think that this is a very lovely park. It is clean, has ample parking, and clean restrooms. There are different activities to enjoy and there is an outdoor theatre. I enjoyed a wonderful concert the other evening. What I was disappointed about is that there weren't any tennis practice walls. But overall I would recommend this park and I plan on attending more free concerts.

Nature center with play area for toddlers, out in the forest are trails, playground with swing and tennis/basketball court

It was pretty good but that there was leavs i trippeped all over the place

Excellent venue for smaller children. In the winter time, it is an excellent place to bring the kids to burn a little extra energy, especially if they're excited by animals and nature in general. There are plenty of toy dinosaurs to play with, as well as some to dress up in. There are quite a few turtles in tanks, a few snakes and a couple of other small creatures to look at. Recommend the parking lot that is a 5 minute walk away by nature trail. Even in winter it's nice to just get the kids walking outside if even for a short time.

I photographed the most gorgeous wedding there this May and the location was just breathtaking! If you are looking to get married in Southern California, this is definitely the place to be.

Fun special programs, indoor play area with many different stations, hiking trail with creek, outdoor playground, etc. Parking can be tight.

This is a great place for younger kids. They have lots of activities and different stations to do different things in the nature center. There are plenty of trails and areas in the park to learn about nature and animals.

Perfect for kids birthdays and adventures with kids. Highly recommended

This is a great place for kids at any age. The staff is super friendly, lots of animals to see. Great for birthday parties but book early because the get booked very quickly.

Love this place for small jogging. Run for a while in the clean air.

What a cool hidden gem in Northern Virginia! My son and I love hiking and we just discovered this place! There is so much nature and facts to learn about wildlife!

Plenty of open space, a small library, green house, pond etc

I am hesitant to fish to openly about Hidden Oaks for fear of it becoming overwhelmingly crowded but it truly is amazing. The outdoor discovery area and trails are well maintained and great for a large age range. It's a great spot to physically distance outside and, when things are different, the nature center is informative and staffed by a caring team.

Very nice nature center. Several live frogs and snakes to look at. Other interactive exhibits with animal fur, sounds, bones. There are also costumes and toys for the kids to try.

This was really fun we attended a private event for my daughter's school and it was informative and interactive. My kid really enjoyed herself and learned a bit about nature. It was scary, especially with covid-19 everywhere - but with masks and common sense - we had fun. I would make a return trip!

Very educational but the MWEE trip there was kinda boring

I love this place. Neat rocks in the creek, and some paths have wooden sidewalks on them.

Nice kid oriented nature center. We went for a Dr. Suess program given by a ranger there. She did a great job at keeping the preschoolers' attention with stories, crafts, live animals and even cupcakes. Nice trails outside also. Small parking lot but they say there is a larger one a short distance away

Very natural park. It's very relaxing !!! Enjoyed nature

Great staff. Indoor nature center has a wonderful array of activities for kids.

The center is pretty small, but it's also extra awesome. Really cool place for small kids. I'll let's these amazing pictures explain.

Great programs for children, very well run. With knowledgible staff

Nice park. They are environmentally aware with native plants, rain garden, pavers that allows rain water through.
This morning was cool and quiet so we had delightful walk with our dog.

Great hidden gem. Inside is full of imagination toys. Outside is a cool little wild play area and several marked nature trails. They often have programs focusing on dinosaurs.

Paths could be better maintained, but overall a fun experience. You have to walk a little to the play grounds and they are not super stroller friendly if you have littles. But inside the center, there is fun for all young ages.

Peaceful especially when there less people. Gives feel of wild forest.it would have been more awsome if it covers more area.

Awesome place for small kids to come and connect with nature. We'll definitely be coming back.

Very nice park they are remodeling the play ground for the kids.

Great place! No changing table in men's room but no biggie

This is such a fun area to walk around and be in nature. Every so often there are little stations with animal footprints that you can try to identify. I went on a Saturday afternoon and there were not too many people. Most wore masks and stayed socially distanced. Great to see such a fun nature park.

Came here on mother's dayfor a quiet family walk with a 2-year old. Even though the nature center was closed there was plenty for us to do. The trails were well marked and well-maintained.

It definitely was not very crowded and there is a lot of variety in the terrain. Some of the paths are paved, some are dirt, others have planks. We were able to walk down to the stream. Especially enjoyed the fun facts that were peppered throughout the and looking at the animal tracks along the way.

We spent about an hour at the park and look forward to coming back with everything is open again.

Hidden Oaks Nature Center has beautiful trails, a fun playground and an educational nature center that should be your "go to place" with your little children. There is so much to explore and learn! Make this your new family outing location no matter the season; spring, summer, fall or winter for there is always something new to discover in nature!