Buchanan County: Fontana Park

 

Fontana Park was developed around the site of a 19th century mill & dam.  The park has a playground, hiking trails, nature play area, story walk, wildlife exhibits and a nature center.  

The play structure is for ages 5-12 and has a sand surface.  There are traditional and toddler swings, three sand diggers, benches, picnic tables and a large picnic shelter just north of the playground.

 

The park map does not include the location of the nature play area and story walk, so I've added it to the screenshot below.  It's in the middle of the hiking trails, which are grassy and fairly short trails.  From the parking lot to the northern border of the park is 1/2 a mile.

I've never before encountered a nature play area like the one at this park.  It's simply an area for kids to explore off the trail where hazardous plants have been removed.  The story walk weaves its way through the play area requiring kids to climb over fallen trees in order to proceed.

The hiking trails were great and we especially enjoyed the views from the trail along Otter Creek.

The nature center wasn't open during our visit, but we were able to check out the wildlife display.  The majority of the enclosures were empty.  We did see a beautiful bald eagle and a frisky fox though.