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Heading out for a nature walk was the last thing I wanted to do last Friday morning. It was cold and overcast. The friend I had hoped to walk with had bailed out. I hadn't started to pack for a weekend trip.
Still, my toddler and I headed to the Harriet Alexander Nature Center, 52 acres of marsh, prairie and forest in Roseville. I wrestled my decade-old, first-generation jogging stroller out of the back of the car. (I stifled a surge of bitter envy for those moms with the BOB Ironman that collapses at the touch of your pinky. I'm just too cheap to upgrade for our last child.)
By the time I got the rear wheels reattached, I had axle grease on my hands and it was drizzling. The nature center building wouldn't be open for another half hour, so we started down a wooded trail. We were the only people there. Gee, I wonder why.
The woods quickly opened into a marsh, and the packed earth trail turned into a wood boardwalk bordered on each side by a low-slung cable railing. We were enclosed by cattails, swamp milkweed and stands of towering grasses. The marsh was ringed with trees turning rust, red, yellow, orange and burgundy — the color scheme of fall corduroy — all under a slate-gray sky.
As I pushed the stroller, I started to feel my bad mood lift. The toddler leaned out to peer over the sides as we walked through patches of open water covered in green algae. She was delighted we were "on a bridge."
"Look mama!" she said. "More water! Maybe
Harriet Alexander's lead naturalist, Debbie Cash, explained the lure of the boardwalks.
"I think there is the interest of being in the midst of something you don't usually see," she said. "If you're not on a boardwalk or wearing waders, you just don't get to see a marsh."
Harriet Alexander Nature Center is part of Roseville's Central Park. The marshy eastern section bordered by Dale Street and County Road C escaped development because it would have been
Roseville resident Harriet Alexander used to walk her dogs in the park, and when she died, she remembered the place in her will. In 1990, the city opened the nature center named for her. About 13,000 people came through its doors last year — about half for programs and half, as I did, as drop-in visitors.
The main room of the nature center building has several large shelves of nature books to read in comfy chairs and a selection of natural objects to explore. There are deer and moose antlers, a glass-fronted beehive, animal skeletons and two live box turtles named Walter and Rose. We used rubber molds of animal feet to make "tracks" in a big sandbox and ate our snack while looking out the large windows at the birdfeeders.
As we were leaving, people started arriving for a toddler nature program. Sandi Fuchs of Roseville had brought her 2-year-old granddaughter, Lily Callanan.
"We don't have a cabin, and when I come here, I feel like I'm up north," Fuchs said. "And I think it's great for the kids."
The young children do things like collect leaves or measure the circumference of a tree with lengths of yarn. The nature center also runs school science field trips during which older students might learn how to estimate the age of trees or dig for invasive earthworms.
By the time we left, I was glad we had come. It's worth remembering that nature usually lifts the spirits and heals a frazzled mind.
Maja Beckstrom can be 
Sophia Schmidt does some leaf comparisons as she learns about trees. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)reached at 651-228-5295.
FAMILY OUTINGS / THE SCOOP
What: Harriet Alexander Nature Center
Where: 2520 N. Dale St., Roseville
Information: ci.roseville.mn.us or 651-765-4262
Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-4 p.m. Sunday, closed Mondays.
Cost: Admission free; fees for programs
Target audience: All ages
Crowd pleaser: Walking the boardwalks
Avoid: Getting stuck with a stroller in poorly maintained sections. Bring your all-terrain ride or let your toddler walk.
Tip: Pack a snack for indoors or outdoors
Special events: Free first Sundays offer hands-on nature sessions led by volunteer naturalists. Bring your kids anytime from 1 to 3 p.m. on the first Sunday of the month. Classes for toddlers and preschoolers throughout the year. Next toddler program is 10 to 11:15 a.m. Nov. 20 ($11 per adult-child pair, $5 additional child). Next preschool program is 10 to 11:30 a.m. Nov. 6 ($11 per adult-child pair, $15 additional child). To register, call 792-7110. Also public seasonal events, programs for schools and youth groups and overnight birthday parties.
