Southeastern PA Hiking: Churchville Nature Center

Date of Hike: Sunday, August 17, 2014
Total Distance: 2.69 Miles
Avg Speed: 0.99 MPH
Avg Moving Speed: 1.42 MPH
Moving Time: 1:54:02
Total Time:2:42:33
Conditions: Mostly cloudy, 83 Degrees
Difficulty: Easy

This wasn't so much of a hike as it was a leisure stroll. I had intentions of visiting another park when I finished here but instead, decided to head back home since I was still fatigued from my 13 mile hike at Tyler Arboretum. All of the trails in the nature center are relatively flat with one small hill but nothing that took much effort. Once again though, there was a butterfly garden and it was better than the one I visited at Tyler Arboretum the day before.

Location:
501 Churchville Lane
Churchville, PA 18966
GPS: 40.186006,-74.992908

The butterfly garden at the Churchville Nature Center is a guided tour which I wasn't too keen on but the guy who gave me the tour was very nice and knowledgeable. I believe his name was John if I remember right. If you want to check out the butterfly garden, there is a $6 charge. There's also another section of the nature center I didn't check out called Lenape Village that has a $5 charge. If you go there just to check out the flower garden and trails, there's no charge.

The butterfly garden was very nice. Small, but nice. I ended up having to take my daypack off since turning around was difficult without running into anything.

There were giant swallowtails at this garden but they were tough to get pictures of, they never stopped fluttering their wings even when they landed.

No butterfly? I snuck a few flower pictures in while waiting for the swallowtails to sit still which they never did

Another giant swallowtail

Once I was done in the butterfly garden, I hit the trails. In all, there's said to be approximately 2 miles worth but I did notice there were side trails that looked to lead around the lake. The nature center has an online trail map but it's way too small, you'd be better off picking one up when you get there.

As you're heading out to the trails, there's a picnic grove and a small playground for kids

A short distance away from the playground is a small pond. When you reach the trails, they split off in two different directions and there are two loops. I headed west first.

A short distance from the pond is this old historic spring house.

Trail looking back towards the spring house.

White pine grove in the southwestern section of the nature center

Once you get beyond the pine grove, you get your first view of Springfield Lake

You might notice the water looks like it's green in this picture. It's not my camera, the water was green. I asked what it was and was told it's a blue-green algae bloom, also known as Cyanobacteria. Apparently, some of these algae blooms can be toxic to humans, pets, etc. so if you see this, play it safe and don't swim in it or let your pets drink it. At the nature center, pets and swimming are not permitted but if you should see this in public water where it is allowed, use caution.

Circling back to the other loop, I then headed north. Before reaching the other trail there's some open fields and thick grasslands. I'm not sure why but I didn't take too many pictures of the trail in this area.

Another lookout over the water and a picture of the bridge I crossed over to get to the nature center

This ball of fuzz was a caterpillar

Trail heading back to the nature center

Churchville Nature Center

Not sure why but this pile of rocks was in the middle of the field

Little critters hanging out on a flower

Once I was done walking the trails, I circled back to the garden just outside the front entrance of the nature center to take a quick look around. I walked through when I first arrived but was with the tour guide at the time so I didn't take any pictures.

On my way out, I snapped one last picture of this totem pole. You might also note in the background, there's construction fencing around the area. The Churchville Nature Center is in the midst of an upgrade so it looks a bit messy out front.

If you're interested in adopting a reptile, the nature has center some up for adoption, one of which was I believe a blue tongued skink that a woman had out as I was leaving. I stopped and chatted with her for a short while since I own a few reptiles myself. If you're interested, check out the information on what you need to do and the terms here.