Madrona Marsh Tyke Hike

I have now lived in the city of Torrance for seven years, I think. In these seven years I have always passed by a certain fenced area called the Madrona Marsh and thought, "Who are they trying to fool?" The Madrona Marsh is a reserve area that is right next to a Target, Ralphs, and surrounded by busy streets. I was raised in the beautiful country of Germany with forests and fields all over the place. I mean true forests and not fabricated nature parks.

However, I finally took the kids to the Marsh! I was so pleasantly surprised I can't tell enough people about our experience. These pictures aren't fantastic, but it's what I got. Once a month the Marsh has a nature walk for children. This particular day we couldn't go into the park, because there was a bacteria in the water that needed some time to die off. However, they did walk us along the edge of the Marsh and back into the Nature Center for some activities. Each child was given a little sign with a picture on it to help them identify certain native flowers, bugs, or animals. As we walked along the sidewalk we spotted sycamore trees with its fuzzy leaves, dune lupines pretty purple flowers, gopher holes, and learned that the yellow poppy is our state flower.

At the nature center we fed tortoises dandelions, colored nature pictures, and explored through their little "museum" which featured what one might find at the Marsh this time of the year. They also had live toads and snakes.

The kids had a great time and it's now my favorite place in the area. I can't wait for next month's hike and hope that we actually get to go into the Marsh!