FIELD TRIP! We waited and waited for a beautiful day to come so that we could go to the mountains of North Georgia and it finally came! And man what a perfect day; it was a little chilly, the sky was blue and the leaves were brightly colored! We decided to make our way to the Elachee Nature & Science Center for the morning!
We arrived and made our way in the center!
Elachee Nature & Science Center
We spoke to very nice lady who worked there! She first showed us some great touch shelves full of skulls, snake sheds and all kinds of wonderful items!
Ellie and Edmond in front of a horse skull
Touch shelves!
Can you believe they let you touch all these neat items? It was loads of fun!
Here's the beehive!
Next we headed into the center’s museum! We first encountered BEES! Yes, you heard right folks, BEES! The nature center has a small hive of bees that live there! It’s really neat to watch them buzz about and make honey. The bees weren’t super active when we saw them, because they’re getting ready for the cooler temperatures!
The best part of the bees is that you can buy the honey that they make right there in the center!
We moved into the Chicopee Woods story gallery of the museum! You go back in time and learn what today’s woods looked like all the way back to the time before the dinos; and you can do it without a time machine!
We'e about to learn the story of the Chicopee Woods!
We found all kinds of different fossils that came from the area!
Fossils on the bottom of the sea floor!
Fossilized Duck Billed Dinosaur Eggs!
The biggest fossil there was a Mosasaur!
Mosasaur!
Its name means river lizard and it lived during the last 25 million years of the Crustaceous period. This giant marine reptile, a distant relative of snakes, swam in the oceans! Yep, the Chicopee woods at one time were under water! Can you believe it? The center even shows you all the work it takes to dig and find fossils!
Digging for fossils!
Being a paleontologist is HARD work!
Edmond found a sign that said when horses first appeared!
Edmond learns about ancient horses!
Horses started out very small, about the size of a dog! Wow! Edmond was very excited to learn about his ancestors! Recent DNA studies show that horses were very spotty at one point!
The day just got better when Ellie found a fossilized mammoth tooth and hair!
Ellie with the mammoth tooth and hair! That is one BIG tooth!
Did you know that mammoths are early relatives of the modern elephant? Turns out our Asian elephant cousins are more closely related to mammoths than African elephants, but we’re all still family!
As we wandered around we saw and learned all about the events and people that lived in this area throughout history! It was very interesting! We did find this lovely guide to some of the animals you might see in the woods surrounding the center!
Animals you made find in the woods.
We were hoping to see all of them!
The other gallery in the museum talked all about space!
Enter to learn about the stars, planets, moon and sun!
It’s a neat space that talks about the moon and stars and sun. Ellie had to hold Edmond’s hoof because he’s afraid of the dark! Sadly, we didn’t take many pictures because we couldn’t get our camera in the right setting. Trust us, you will not be disappointed!
We then hit up the live animal room underneath the museum! They have all kinds of fun animals living at the center! We found snakes, salamanders, frogs and turtles!
Super cute Eastern Tiger Salamanders! We wondered if they could roar like a tiger! Probably not.
A red rat corn snake posed for us!
An Eastern box turtle is about to chow down on some salad! YUM!
You can even adopt some of these animals! No silly, you can’t take them home, but you can adopt them by helping pay for their care! We wondered if the animal writes you a thank note when you adopt them (that’s hard for snakes).
Our last stop for the day was the Chicopee Woods themselves! We went exploring around the outside of the center and found beautiful fall leaves, animals and scarecrows!
Edmond liked the scarecrow!
The center has loads of trails for you explore, just remember the rules J!
The woods are for everyone!
The nice lady at the center told us that volunteers help to maintain the trails for visitors! It’s so nice of them to do all that work for us to enjoy the woods!
We found these lovely lichen or fungus on a fallen tree!
Lichen or fungus on a tree! Pretty!
We really enjoyed exploring the trail!
Here we are on one of the trails!
Unfortunately the only animal we encountered was a squirrel, but he was pretty cute!
A squirrel grabs a quick bite near the picnic tables!
We’ll have to look harder for more animals next time! We did find some beautyberries and Edmond found a tiny pinecone and Ellie enjoyed hanging out in the leaves!
Beautyberries!
We called these the burnt marshmallow plant! :)!
Edmond found a Edmond sized pinecone!
Ellie enjoyed playing in the leaves!
All in all we had a wonderful time at the Elachee Nature & Science Center! It’s really a gem just north of Atlanta! We’re definitely going back soon and highly recommend that you check it out too!
The Adventures of Ellie and Edmond 