Tres Rios Wetlands

On Saturday, we went to the Tres Rios Wetlands area. It's been closed most of the spring due to flooding along the river, but it opened up a couple of weeks ago, so we checked it out.

It's an interesting place... not the most spectacular, but only two miles from home & it had some neat stuff. It's actually a wetlands reclamation area next door to a huge water treatment facility. So all the water is reclaimed (creepy) and sometimes you get questionable whiffs. But it was never all-out stinky, so we stayed a while!

One of the first things we saw was this boardwalk/pier that wound through a bunch of trees. There was no water under it, but I could see there had been at some point.


There are two large ponds, which are completely covered with bright green goo. You have to walk around a while before you can actually see the ponds, because the grass is so high. But there are several places where little piers go out onto the ponds, and one leads to a little ramada on the water.


Checking out the "water"... yeah, not a good place to see fish by any means! I guess it's a good place for throwing rocks.


So it's an odd place, but still kind of a nice oasis in some areas. One of the trails led down close to the river, and there were lots of cottonwood trees.


Caterpillars love cottonwood trees. They make these really gross sacs that look like spiderwebs, and when the caterpillars are ready to come out (hatch? whatever) they're all over the place. I can't remember what time of year they usually make their debut, but something was a-brewing here! Most of this path was covered in the stuff... looked like snow:


Conveniently, there's also a butterfly garden there. Here are the kids outside the garden:

Sitting still, watching the butterflies...

You can't tell from the picture, but it was a pretty little garden with lots of flowers. And there were a lot of butterflies and hummingbirds. it's not enclosed, so they come and go as they please. I managed to get a picture of one of the butterflies...

We also saw three bunnies and some bobcat poop. From their website, I see the bobcats like to come feast on the bunnies and the birds. Here are the kids checking out an egg shell:

So there you have it. We'll probably go back sometime. There are lots of picnic tables, and it might be fun to go early in the morning when more animals are out.

It's a strange place - some really pretty areas mixed in with creepy things and occasional views of the huge industrial-looking water treatment facility. We laughed, we cried...

But entertaining nonetheless, and very close to home!