A Guide to the Best of Southern California : HIDDEN CALIFORNIA : Back to Our Swampy Past
EVEN PARK naturalist Dave Winkler admits that people may have trouble finding the Shipley Nature Center; but once you’ve found the parking lot, the signs will show you the way. Set in the middle of a 350-acre park, the 18-acre nature center is, according to Winkler, “riparian” (stream-side) woodland. Huntington Beach was once a swamp, but the water today, according to Winkler, is under the ground surface.
In addition to offering a tour through the half-mile trail (a trail booklet is available), the visitors’ center houses a variety of displays, including stuffed specimens of birds, mammals and insects, and live snakes and other reptiles indigenous to the area.
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