lucy evans baylands nature interpretive center

Great bird watching area, flat, easy walking. Don't forget binoculars and camera. Friendly people, suitable for all ages and ok for wheelchairs.

This area is by the bay - one of the popular activities in the area is wind surfing. One can also watch the birds in the marsh areas. There are also bike and hiking trails. There are a few (not many) picnic tables). There is lot of parking and it is a good spot to see small planes taking off and landing at nearby Palo Alto Airport.

Fun to feed the ducks and birdwatch at the Baylands. This is the spot every elementary school child visits on a field trip to study about their local environment. The interpretive center is sweet and the boardwalk over the mudflats has braille plaques to interpret the surroundings.

The nature center is modest, but the Baylands walks are quite nice. You can walk either south to Shoreline Park or north up to East Palo Alto along the edge of the Bay. It is a very good site for birding.

It's hard to be down on a nice little nature center, but it's just a cookie cutter place with a few maps, some dioramas of the surrounding ecosystem. The trails nearby can be good. Not much in the way of special programs.

The Lucy Evans Nature Interpretive Center is a great place for young kids who love nature and adults who want to learn more about the wildlife and plants in this unique salt water marsh, especially if you want to see some rare animals.There is a rare salt water marsh bird there called the Clapper Rail, but you have to be very quiet to see it. Another rare animal there is the Salt Marsh Mouse, a small mouse that lives among the pickleweed. Pickleweed, another life form that thives in the salty mash used to be used by the Indians as food, and sometimes you can still buy it in Palo Alto, just dont try to pick your own, everything that is in the preserve stays in the preserve. There are many other more common Fauna in the preserve, too. Most of them are shorebirds, which makes this place fantastic for birdwatchers. Birdwatchers will also enjoy a non-native oriental pheasant (it might be an escaped pet) and a Burrowing Owl nest. There are many trails for bikers and walkers. Along these trails you may find jackrabbits and, if you stand/sit still for about 2 minutes in front of one of the little holes by the side of the trail, usually a vole will come out, and in the rare circumstance, a hawk or a kite will swoop down and whisk it away, then eat it. If you come in the right season (spring/summer) you might find many snakes by a boardwalk trail that they have there. In walking distance there is a duck pond, where you can feed the ducks. There is a very wide variety of ducks there, some that look pretty strange. Also in walking distance there is Shoreline park, a man made park that was built on top of an old landfill, which features a man made lake, where you can go boating. Overall, this place is fun for someone who loves wildlife.