Lindsay Wildlife Experience & Larkey Park

So this was not a hike, but--boy!--was it a great experience for this not-so-lonely hiker and her hiker-in-training. We went to the Lindsay Wildlife Experience (formerly the Lindsay Wildlife Museum), which abuts an amazing city park in Walnut Creek, Larkey Park. Between the museum, the playground, and the swim park, this is just a dream for any family of young children in the East Bay.

Common barn owl

Bald eagle

Spider monkey

Map from Google

My daughter is just under 2 years old, and there are two things that she absolutely loves: owls and choo-choo trains. The Lindsay Wildlife Experience has lots of animals, but I think that their owls are the real showcase. They have A LOT of owls: great horned owls, tiny screech owls, barn owls, and grey owls.

The highlight of our trip was the "Wild California" exhibit, where trainers/docents brought out animals who have been rescued and rehabilitated: owls, opossums, tarantulas, and ravens. Lindsay Wildlife takes in injured animals from the public and tries to rehabilitate them, but the ones who are injured in such a way that they could not survive in the wild are kept in the museum as animal ambassadors. They were relatively tame, and we actually got really close to them. There are all kinds of activities throughout the day, so you should really check out the daily schedule whenever you arrive.

We decided to have our picnic lunch in Larkey Park after the Wild California exhibit, and there was a great selection of playgrounds for children of different ages. Wouldn't you know it, the playground that was just her size was shaped like a choo-choo train. My daughter was just in heaven: owls and trains in one activity.

There was also an amazing splash park and pool, but we didn't know that ahead of time, so we did not have any bathing suits. I can definitely imagine coming back here, and when that happens, I will be sure to be better prepared.

Although this is not an open space park for hiking, we definitely got our steps in with going all over the museum and Larkey Park. I highly recommend this anyone with young children, And if you don't have young children, but you want to build a hike into this experience, then you can add a walk along either the Contra Costa Canal Trail or the Briones to Mt. Diablo Regional Trail, which are both regional trails run by the East Bay Regional Park District. The two trails intersect near Lindsay, and either could be used to add some hiking to the day!