Category Archives: Family Adventures

Hike The Heard

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The Heard Wood Duck Trail
The Heard Natural History Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary Wood Duck Trail

The Heard Natural History Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary in McKinney offers more than just a gorgeous natural setting for local hikes. During winter months, youngsters will delight in the exhibit of life-sized dinosaurs and naturalists of all ages will enjoy the year round museum exhibits. And did I mention the hiking trails through diverse habitats from forest to prairie to wetland?

Dinosaurs Live

A thunderous roar shatters the forest stillness. Beware. Beasts not seen for millions of years stalk the Heard Natural History Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary. Young paleontologists will find Brachiosaurus, Diabloceratops, Dilophosaurus, and the infamous Tyrannosaurus Rex roaming the trails at the sanctuary. View ten different dinosaurs along a loop trail through forest and meadow. These life-sized dinosaur replicas roar and move delighting young dinosaur enthusiasts.

North Texas Ramblings - Dinosaurs Live Heard Natural Science Museum
Dinosaurs Live at The Heard

Billings Production in Allen makes the animatronic creatures. The Heard dinosaurs are part of over 200 Billings’ dinosaurs found at zoos and museums throughout North American. The robotic dinosaurs are uniquely adapted to operate outdoors. A hinged steel structure within the fabricated body allows dinosaur heads and limbs to move. A computer program further enhances dinosaur movements making these monstrous creatures look and act almost real — Jurassic Park Texas style. The Heard’s fifteenth annual Dinosaurs Live continues through February 15.

Hike The Heard

While the dinosaurs draw the crowds, there is more to The Heard. Five hiking trails offer differing habitats to explore.

Bluestem and Wood Duck

We live in an ecoregion known as Blackland Prairie running from the Red River to San Antonio. Farming, ranching, and urbanization has decimated the original prairie land of tall grasses to just one percent of its original acreage. The Heard has restored several meadow-sized areas to prairie by careful cultivation of indigenousness grasses and plants. Bluestem trail gets its name from one of these clumping prairie grasses. The trail is one mile out and back, and easy walking.

Bluestem joins with Wood Duck to offer a completely different wetland habitat. The Wood Duck boardwalk takes you on a loop over shallow water and in among flooded trees. During summer months you’ll find turtles and snakes galore sunning themselves on fallen trees. We even found a few confused turtles out soaking up rays from a warmer than normal January sun. Across from the boardwalk, egrets often use the wetland for their rookeries. Combining Bluestem and Wood Duck trails, gives you a pleasant two-mile hike.

Hoot Owl

Located at the lower level of the museum, you’ll find the trailhead for Hoot Owl. The loop takes you through forest to the highest elevation at the sanctuary. At the overlook, you get a glimpse of Texas from before the dinosaurs when our region was covered by an ancient inland sea. The soil all around the overlook is white and part of the geological formation called Austin Chalk formed by long-dead sea creatures.

Hikers descend from the overlook into older forest of elm and oak. At the bottom of Hoot Owl, is the oldest tree on the sanctuary, a great Burr oak that has been core dated at over 230 years old. The Hoot Owl trail is a mile loop, but a more moderate hike due to changes in elevation.

Animals of the World

After your hike, check out the Animals of the World outdoor exhibit. The Heard houses a small number of native and exotic animals. Many exhibit animals imprinted with humans and cannot be released into the wild. Seized from an illegal animal breeder, some animals found new homes at the wildlife sanctuary. There are deer, bobcat, fox, and capybara, the world’s largest rodents. An albino raccoon found a home here too. My favorite are the bobcat brothers. These two were rescued by a farmer from a fire. The farmer brought the small kits to a rehabilitation center. The bobcat brothers recovered from their burns, but spent too much time with humans to be released back into the wild. The ‘boys’ are beautiful cats. During colder winter months, some of the exhibit animals, like the lemurs, are housed inside the museum.

When You Go

The Heard Natural History Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 1 until 5 p.m. Pets are not allowed in the sanctuary and there is an admission fee. The trails around Dinosaurs Live are accessible with a stroller, however all trails within the sanctuary are on natural, unpaved surfaces — challenging for wheel chairs and strollers. Picnic areas are available. Restrooms are inside the main building. The Heard Natural History Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary is at 1 Nature Place in McKinney.

Pandemic Impact

The Heard outdoor and indoor exhibits are open, however, masks are required throughout the sanctuary. Trails are narrow and there is enough crossing traffic, that masks are needed even when hiking. Because the dinosaurs draw so many families, you may want to consider a visit during the weekdays when trails are less crowded.

Big Orange Pumpkin Farm

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Preston Trails Farm

It’s pumpkin time! If you are looking for a Fall family outing, check out The Big Orange Pumpkin Farm at Preston Trail Farms. Located in rural Gunter, a trip to the farm makes for a relaxed, low-key afternoon in the country.

More than a pumpkin patch

The Big Orange Pumpkin Farm has a little something for everyone. Of course, you’ll find the requisite furrowed field with small pumpkins positioned along the rows. Ah, but there is so much more.

Petting zoo

Preston Trails Farm petting zoo

My personal favorite is the petting zoo with its cattle (including longhorns), sheep, and goats. Your admission includes a small sack of feed, all you need to make close friends of the animal kind. Unlike other petting zoos, you don’t go into the livestock enclosures but feed the begging goats at the fence. This worked much better for my younger grandkids. The fence barrier kept the farm critters from surrounding and overwhelming the little kids. If you haven’t seen a longhorn cow up close and personal, here’s your chance.

Hayride and maze

A farm tractor pulls several flatbeds with hay bale seating for you ride. The course is just around the farm perimeter, but there’s more. Be sure to read the whiteboards posted along the track, as they tell a clever little story about Farmer Rick. As you round the last curve of the route you’ll discover the fate of the missing farmer.

The maze, created from bales and rolls of hay was surprisingly difficult. There are enough dead ends and crazy twists to give maze runners a challenge. Not far from the maze are several wooden sawhorses where older kids (and adults) can practice their lasso skills. And on weekends, the kiddos can ride the farm train, a tractor-pulled train of barrel cars.

Photo op

Be sure to bring your camera. Scattered throughout the grounds, family photo opportunities abound. There are hay rolls painted as pigs and pumpkins, great wooden cutouts to stick your face through, and picturesque old farm equipment. And of course … there are pumpkins!

Preston Trail Farms

The whole pumpkin patch experience is behind Preston Trail Farms, a year-round general store. It’s a cross between a feed and hardware store, just like the ones I remember from my youth. The general store even has three different kiddie rides out front, the type that used to be in front of grocery stores, in this case a mechanical horse, longhorn, and two-seater carousel.  

Tender Smokehouse is a small restaurant, is tucked into one corner of the store. The smokehouse has a limited menu serving breakfast tacos and BBQ sandwiches and banana pudding.

Once pumpkin season passes, you can shop the store, grab lunch at Tender Smokehouse, and enjoy the year-round petting zoo out back.

COVID-19 precautions

The Big Orange Pumpkin Farm encourages mask wearing in all places. While we were there, about half the folks wore masks. There are cute signs all throughout encouraging six-foot distancing and the hayride seating also encourages distancing. I’d suggest visiting the farm during the weekdays or early in the morning to avoid crowds.

When you go

Preston Trails Farm (15102 Preston Road) is located in Gunter. Admission to the farm is $10 for all over the age of two. Your admission includes a small bag of food for the petting zoo. On weekdays your admission also includes a small pumpkin. On weekends, you pay for pumpkins in the store. The Big Orange Pumpkin Farm is open seven days a week now until November 25. Hours are 8 am to 8 pm.

History Trivia Fact. Preston Trail Farms and the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm are on the old Shawnee Trail cattle drive route.

Post Oak Creek Fossil Hunting

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Fossil Hunting at Post Oak Creek in Sherman, Texas

Post Oak Creek in Sherman teams with fossils waiting to be discovered. Most trek to the rural creek in search of shark teeth. For me, I’m content to gather any type of fossil. Summer, despite the heat, is a prime time to visit. The creek water level is low, exposing sandbars and allowing hunters the opportunity to walk miles up and down the stream bed.

Abundance of shells

In geological time, the formation exposed at Post Oak Creek is from the late Cretaceous period, some 90 to 66 million years ago. At that time, an inland sea covered the area. Seawater rose and receded with events like the formation of the Rocky Mountains.

Sedimentary rock embedded with fossil shells

Walking in Post Oak Creek, I literally reached into the water and retrieved millions-year-old shells. No digging or much hunting required. Fossil shells, mostly oyster, layer the sedimentary rock lining sections of the stream’s bank, exposed over years of erosion. If you want to find a fossil, Post Oak Creek is the spot.

Shark tooth prospectors

Oyster shells abound throughout the creek area, but most visitors search for more elusive finds like shark teeth and the even rarer mastodon bone or tooth fragment. Shark’s teeth range in size from a quarter to dime, and their shape reminds me of a fat capital letter-T. Sharks have been swimming in oceans for 400 million years, and some of the teeth found at Post Oak are from now extinct Cretalamna and Petaldus species.

To successfully hunt teeth, you need simple tools and patience. It’s a little like panning for gold. Scoop up some stream gravel, place it in a sieve, and then sluice the sieve around in the water to rinse out clay and dirt. From there, you can examine the remaining rocks for fossil treasures. A garden trowel or small hand shovel works well for the digging. The day I visited, people used all sorts of things for sieves including box screens and vegetable colanders. In fact, one clever family used plastic hamburger baskets – the red ones with the side slats — as sieves.

Other Post Oak finds

In addition to fossils, the careful scavenger may find other artifacts like arrowheads, more recent bone from mammals, and old pottery and glass. Through the years, the town of Sherman was home to many different factories. One lucky hunter found an old 1890 bottle from the now defunct Sherman Bottling Works.

South Travis Street Bridge

Post Oak Creek meanders through south Sherman, but getting to the creek itself can be a challenge. The easiest access is at the Travis Street Bridge. Here you can park on the road shoulder and use a short trail down to the stream. The address, 2400 South Travis Street, Sherman, works well for directions in most mapping programs. The creek flows under US 75, and some fossil hunters recommend the access road near the interstate as another egress. My recommendation is to stick to South Travis Street. It’s true, this area is well-picked over from scores of visitors, however, just hike up or down stream to get to less congested hunting grounds.

When you go

Be weather aware. In the height of summer, creek levels are low, however, strong rains fill the creek rapidly and can create a dangerous flash flood situation. This is not a park. No restrooms. It’s good ol’ Texas-styled boondocks. Come prepared with hat, bug spray, sunscreen, and lots of water on hot days.

I wore wading boots, in part, to protect myself from water snakes. I confess, I was the only one in the crowd in my galoshes. Still be watchful and alert for snakes. Wear clothes you don’t mind getting wet and dirty. A hand trowel and sieve is all you need to hunt shark teeth, though I also recommend bringing lots of baggies for storing your finds. I found a gallon bucket worked well for lugging around my equipment and for storing larger finds. If you don’t mind carrying it, a small camp stool can be useful for sitting in the creek while you search the gravel for treasures.

After you come home

The website Your Fossil Adventure has a page dedicated to Post Oak Creek. Here you’ll find pictures identifying the fossils typical to the location. Also, if you aren’t sure what you have, the Facebook page Texas Fossil Hunting is wonderful. Post a picture of your find and ask for help identifying it.

Ballpark Fun with Frisco RoughRiders

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For a fun-filled family outing, head to Frisco and an evening with the Frisco RoughRiders. As American as apple pie, baseball is the quintessential family sporting event. The Frisco RoughRiders, a Double-A affiliate to the Texas Rangers, deliver baseball thrills at the fraction of the cost of a Major League Baseball (MLB) game.

The team

A member of the Texas League, the RoughRiders compete against teams from Texas and surrounding states of Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas. This is great baseball, with players giving their all for a chance to be called up to the majors. Through the years, over 140 RoughRiders have gone on to careers in the MLB including greats like Nelson Cruz. And if you are a Texas Rangers fan, you still may see your favorite players here, as well. The Rangers use the RoughRiders to rehabilitate players on their injured list.

The venue

Dr. Pepper Ballpark, home to the RoughRiders, received accolades when built in 2003 and again after its 2015 renovation. It’s a modern facility with prime game viewing from its 8,000 seats. Like many other ballparks, its amenities include everything from a playground for little fans to air-conditioned, luxury entertainment suites. Unlike other ballparks, it also sports a lazy river complex out near right field. Yes, you can swim and watch a ballgame. There is even a party area for adults featuring DJ music and Deep Elum brews.

Small ball fun

With four mascots, you can expect between-inning fun. There are prairie dogs Daisy and Deuce to encourage fan participation and cheer the boys on. And Ted E. Bear and Bull Moose, giving a nod to the team’s namesake, Theodore Roosevelt’s Roughriders. From base running relays to absurd dance off contests, the franchise does its best to entertain the whole family with more than just a great ball game.

Keeping it affordable

Frisco RoughRider tickets can be more expensive than other minor league clubs. That said, a family of four can still spend an evening at the ballpark for less than $50. On Thursdays, a Dr. Pepper Fan Pack includes four tickets, four hot dogs, and four sodas for just $44. The grocery store Kroger partners with the ballpark to sell lawn tickets (that include a free hot dog) for just $7. Kroger special pricing is good for games on Sunday through Thursday. While more expensive, Flex Passes provide the option to go to any ten home games and includes food and drink with your ticket.

When you go

Dr. Pepper Ballpark is located at 7300 Roughriders Trail, Frisco. The 2019 opening day is April 4 against Midland RockHounds. The 2019 season runs from April through August with the last home game on August 25 against Northwest Arkansas Naturals. Paid parking is available on site.

Tip: Stonebriar Mall is a quarter mile away from Dr. Pepper Ballpark. The west shopping mall parking lots offer a free option to stadium parking. The area around the mall is filled with restaurants for pre- and post-game dining.

Historic Washington State Park

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Historic Washington State Park transports visitors to the past when great western pioneers like Sam Houston and Davy Crockett traveled the Southwest Trail. It’s a hidden gem just twenty minutes off Interstate-30 in Arkansas.

Frontier history 

Originally just a supply depot along the Southwest Trail, Washington grew into a major town in the 1830’s. In its heyday, the town boasted sixteen doctors, as many lawyers, and three hotel keepers along with a host of craftsman and merchants – impressive for a frontier settlement.

Historic Washington State Park captures the town’s golden age — 1830 through 1880 — with its living history exhibits and reenactments. Over a dozen buildings have been restored including the 1836 Courthouse that served as Arkansas’ State Capital during the Civil War; a tavern purportedly where Houston, Crockett, and Austin planned the liberation of Texas from Mexico; Greek-Revival styled homes built in the mid 1800s; and even a log home circa 1835. Other buildings like the blacksmith shop are reconstructions.

The tour

The 1874 Hempstead County Courthouse houses the park visitor center. For a nominal fee visitors walk through town where costumed docents at each building bring history to life with stories of Washington’s past. Not all buildings are open each day, but you will be able to tour several of the historic structures.

  • The 1920 Print Museum is a favorite with its functioning antique printing press. First published in Washington in 1839 the Washington Telegraph is the oldest, continuously published weekly newspaper in Arkansas.
  • The legendary Bowie knife was made by Washington resident James Black, a silversmith, for frontiersman James Bowie. Tour the blacksmith to learn more.
  • Those interested in antique weapons will want to visit the B.W. Edwards Weapons Museum. Housed in the Old Bank Building, over 600 historic rifles and pistols are on display.
  • Other historic buildings provide visitors with a glimpse into everyday life. Homes of prominent Washington residents are furnished as they would have been in the mid 1800’s.

Allow at least three hours for the walking tour.

Annual highlights

A favorite time to visit the park is in March when thousands of naturalized jonquils create yellow flowering carpets throughout the town.  The park’s Jonquil Festival, a three-day event with craft fair, is in mid-March. Historic Washington State Park hosts several reenactments throughout the year including a Civil War weekend in November. And the park year culminates with its December Christmas and Candlelight weekends.

When you go

Historic Washington State Park is located eight miles northwest of Hope, Ark., on Highway 278. The park is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Before you leave the park, be sure to dine at Williams’ Tavern Restaurant. Located in an historic 1832 building, Williams’ Tavern serves southern food at affordable prices. The restaurant is on the grounds and open daily for lunch from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Tip

For those wanting a longer visit, Hope offers numerous lodging options. Add nearby Crater of the Diamonds to your itinerary for a fun-packed weekend.