Does your child love bugs, critters, and the great outdoors? This hands-on program dives into the fascinating world of insects and their role in our environment. Kids will explore insect life cycles, body parts, communication, and incredible adaptations—plus get up close with live and preserved specimens using microscopes, magnifying glasses, and other...
Ticket Price: $4 Resident / $6 Non-resident
Get up close with our resident critters in this hands-on animal experience! Join us at Mount Rainier Nature Center to meet our resident animal ambassadors and discover what makes each species unique.
Ticket Price: $4 Residents; $6 Non-Residents
Help families in need by running or walking through the beautiful Winter Festival of Lights!
Ticket Price: $35
Bikes and Lights is back! Enjoy the unique experience of riding your bike through the Winter Festival of Lights. Experience dazzling scenes celebrating the magic of the holiday season! For safety, bike lights and helmets are required. Vehicles are not allowed on the festival roads during this...
Ticket Price: $5 per person per bike
Join M-NCPPC, Department of Parks and Recreation, Prince George's County, Anacostia Watershed Society, & Mount Rainier Public Library to celebrate National Seed Swap Day. Exchange seeds with your neighbors and meet local organizations as you prepare for spring and diversify your garden!
Ticket Price: Free
Make a love for reading seem like second nature! Give your child a jump start in literacy as they sit down to listen to a short story with a park naturalist. A guided walk around the center to learn cool facts about our live animals is included.
Ticket Price: $ Resident, $6 Non-Resident
Join a naturalist for a night hike to see the spectacular courtship display of the Timberdoodle, or American Woodcock. This mysterious bird reliably performs a spiraling flight display shortly after sunset.
Ticket Price: $4 Resident, $6 Non-Resident
Step into the buzzing world of incredible insects and discover how these tiny creatures impact our environment! Explore their life cycles, body parts, communication, adaptations, and their remarkable engineering skills.
Ticket Price: $5 Resident, $7 Non-Resident
Give your little one a head start on growing into a knowledgeable adult aware of the importance of the environment. Join us for an exciting time of exploring nature through hands-on activities, stories, songs, crafts, and more.
Ticket Price: $4 Resident, $6 Non-Resident
Give your little one a head start on growing into a knowledgeable adult aware of the importance of the environment. Join us for an exciting time of exploring nature through hands-on activities, stories, songs, crafts, and more.
Ticket Price: $4 Resident, $6 Non-Resident
Join us for a variety of projects and activities utilizing materials from the natural world. We will embark on a new creative endeavor to make anything from color-changing lemonade to baskets woven out of invasive species.
Ticket Price: $4 Resident, $6 Non-Resident
Join a naturalist and explore the world of the Bald Eagle in winter with binoculars and spotting scopes from a tower above Jug Bay. Then, head out on a hike in search of roosting bald eagles.
Ticket Price: $$ Resident, $6 Non-Resident
Let our expert naturalists take you around the region to discover natural history and enjoy new adventures.
Ticket Price: $10 Resident, $13 Non-Resident
Enjoy a naturalist-led, woodland nature hike. A naturalist will guide you through our winter woodlands on a search for skunk cabbage!
Ticket Price: $4 Resident, $6 Non-Resident
Go green with your creativity! Nature provides an abundance of materials and inspiration for making art. Participants will enjoy hands-on nature craft activities.
Ticket Price: $4 Resident, $6 Non-Resident
Go green with your creativity! Nature provides an abundance of materials and inspiration for making art. Our artistic naturalists will assist you in transforming your ideas and creativity into an art piece.
Ticket Price: $4 Resident, %6 Non-Resident
Join a naturalist for a night hike to see the spectacular courtship display of the Timberdoodle, or American Woodcock. This mysterious bird reliably performs a spiraling flight display shortly after sunset.
Ticket Price: $4 Resident, $6 Non-Resident
What’s up with the weather? Investigate the importance of weather to the survival of life, the water cycle, concepts in meteorology, the difference between weather and climate, and more.
Ticket Price: $5 Resident, $7 Non-Resident
Give your little one a head start on growing into a knowledgeable adult aware of the importance of the environment. Join us for an exciting time of exploring nature through hands-on activities, stories, songs, crafts, and more.
Ticket Price: $4 Resident, 6 Non-Resident
You don't need to be Dr. Dolittle to speak to the animals! Meet the nature center's live animals, including reptiles, amphibians, and birds of prey.
Ticket Price: $4 Resident, $6 Non-Resident
Learn from a naturalist about ospreys and the research and conservation efforts happening around the state to help preserve this remarkable species.
Ticket Price: Free
Cows, goats, and sheep…oh my! What do these animals have in common? They are ruminants. Learn about these animals' internal components and observe their interactions through a lab experiment.
Ticket Price: $8 Resident, $11 Non-resident
Learn how milk transforms into curd by exploring the process of curdling, learning what causes the change, and recognizing how this process is used to make different dairy products.
Ticket Price: $8 Resident, $11 Non-resident
Give your child a hands‑on introduction to gardening and agriculture through this fun, three‑session program. Each class encourages kids to explore, observe, and record what they discover in the garden.
Ticket Price: $24 Resident, $32 Non-resident
