Our local area has so many wonderful parks and nature centers. Come help us document the beauty with photography. You can read about the local parks for this outing:

Busey Woods; Weaver Park; Meadowbrook Park; Porter Park; and Heritage Park.

Additionally, the Perkins Road Wetlands, are on land leased from the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD). This location is home to both the Urbana Dog Park and to an in-progress natural areas restoration. The Urbana Park District is in the process of restoring the natural areas of the lower 35 acres with the assistance of the UCSD and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. See an aerial map.

Tentative Itinerary:

6:28am:sunrise

6:30am: meet at Weaver Park, 2205 E Main Street, Urbana, in the small parking lot.  A decent looping trail system, going through prairie and near the wetlands, soft surfaces (grass).  Good mix of birds is possible here.  

8:30am  Leave for Perkins Road Wetland

9:00am: private tour with Urbana Parks staff person of Perkins Road Wetlands. This is a couple blocks east of Cunningham Avenue on Perkins road, South side of road just before the curve.  It's behind the dog park.

10:30am. Leave

10:45am: Meet at Anita Purves Nature Center, 1505 N Broadway, Urbana. (North of the Pool).  We will gather near the trailhead and go into Busey Woods.  After Busey  Woods, we may also walk south to Crystal Lake Park, there can be some good activity there as well.  There is a good mix of wetland and forest habitat here.

12:30pm-1:00pm: Lunch and travel to Meadowbrook Park

1:15pm: Meet at Meadowbrook Park, at the Race Street Parking lot just south of Clark-Lyndsey.

3:15 pm: Leave

3:30pm: Arrive at Legacy Ponds (Clearview Farm Area). only park on the outer side of Legacy Ave.  We will meet on the south end of the loop in between the 2 ponds.  Hike the trails there.

5:00pm: Leave

5:30pm: Arrive at Porter Park, 2310 S Rising Road, Champaign.  We will hike the natural areas through the prairie and around the lake.  

7:00pm: Leave

7:12 Sunset