During our trip to St. Pete, Boyd Hill Nature Preserve was one of mine (and my children’s) favorites! If you love to just get outside and explore, this place is for you. Bonus, their entrance fee ($3 adults, $1.50 kids) helps take care of the injured birds they house in their aviary.

First stop on our journey was the playground… it was so neat! There is a small ropes course that the kids could do on their own, a saucer swing, spinning wooden saucer, and a treehouse-like play structure.


After playing outside for quite some time in the Florida heat, it was time for an A/C break. We then went inside to discover the nature center. Inside the building we a bunch of neat activities and information about animals.

They had multiple interactive displays for the kids to look at and play in. They also had a small section of live animals, such as snakes, frogs, scorpions, and even a bat! This section took us about 30 min to go through, but I could easily have seen the kids spending more than an hour inside.

Outside, there were multiples paths, trails, and boardwalks. We definitely needed to use our map!

There were many place where you could see baby alligators and there was a bird aviary, where the center keeps injured birds and takes care of them. We even saw a bald eagle!

We didn’t make it to every trail with the kids in tow, but we did manage to make it to the island, off of Lake Maggiore. From there you can see across the lake the buildings in downtown St. Pete!

This was a great 1/2 day trip. If you’d like to visit the center:
Phone: (727) 893-7326
Website: http://www.stpeteparksrec.org/boydhillpreserve/
Location (click for map): 1101 COUNTRY CLUB WAY S.
ST. PETERSBURG, FL 33705
Hours: Closed Mondays. Other days 9-6 in the winter, 9-7 in the summer. Open early (7am) on Saturdays.
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