Father's Day at Effie Yeaw Nature Center

Happy Father's Day to all of the awesome dads out there! How did you spend your special day? In our house it's not about gifts, but instead about quality time with the family doing whatever it is that dad wants to do. My husband chose to do a little hiking at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, CA.
The Effie Yeaw Nature Center is ran under the American River Natural History Association, who took over the center in 2010. A family membership to the ARNHA is a modest $40 (and includes parking at Ancil Hoffman Park), and not only helps preserve the Parkway, but supports the education programs at Effie Yeaw as well. You can also find Effie Yeaw and ARNHA on Facebook.

Effie Yeaw is a great place to introduce young kids to hiking. Most of their trails are about 3/4 of a mile, and they have lots of benches along the trails to catch a break when needed.


Western Redbud, a member of the pea family, is starting to show off its lovely red seed pods. In the spring their purple flowers are eye-catching....errr, trail-stopping?

You can't see her very well in this picture (because I have a horrible camera, and I follow the rules and stay on the path!), but Effie Yeaw has a wide variety of wildlife that call these 77 acres home. Besides the deer resting in the photo above, you'll often find turkeys, coyotes, rabbits, hawks, snakes, and many, many more. You'll also find a wide variety of BUGS here! Not just bee's, but the valley elderberry long-horned beetle, and about 86 varieties of butterflies call this place home.

A great place to sit and watch the bugs is at this swale pond. We grabbed a bench in the shade, and enjoyed the butterflies fluttering around us.

Housing seasonal overflow from the American River, in 1999 this pond was lined with over 200 tons of clay to help keep the water through the summer months.

Can you tell we're enjoying ourselves?

Effie Yeaw has a butterfly garden, but also includes signs along the pathways that talk about many of the native plants you'll find along your trip, like some of the ones mentioned here.

This meadow is a sea of flowers in the spring, full of star thistle, winter vetch, mallow, wild oats and foxtail fescue.

Here Alex is checking out a Valley Oak that is near the end of its life. Valley Oaks are the largest oaks in North America, and you can only find them here in California. Yet another reason to visit us :)

Oh, and while you're visiting, stop by the Discovery center and shop (open 9am-5pm during the summer) and visit Sophia, a saw-whet owl, who came to the center after being injured in the grill of a truck. Sophia is just one of the animals you can see at the vistor center.