Family Fun at Pleasant Valley

Ready for some outdoor adventure? We’ve got all kinds of fun programs and activities for you and your friends and family!

Nature Play Area

Pleasant Valley’s Nature Play Area is about exploration and discovery. Children build imaginary fires within a primitive shelter or make gnome homes hidden among the trees.

They can test their balance on the “stump jump” or across a fallen log. Large boulders are fun to climb and hidden among them are hand painted wildlife replicas–a bullfrog, spotted turtle, and spotted salamander among them. 

Don’t forget to leave a nature message behind using words on the “wood cookies.”

Share Ideas

As children continue to use the play area, it will evolve, please let us know if you have ideas.

Nature Play Supporters 

The design was developed by a group of dedicated sanctuary volunteers and students who drew inspiration from the natural surroundings as well as other nature play areas across the state.

Funding from the Coolidge Hill Foundation supported the work of two students, Betsy Baczek and Kara Curtin, to develop interactive play structures that appeal to different senses, including sound and touch. Construction costs and materials for the project were funded by a generous private donation and volunteers installed different nature play elements last spring.