Explore a Park: Hidden Oaks Nature Center

This article is part of our series on parks in the Annandale/Mason District area. The most recent reports in the series covered Backlick Park and Ossian Hall Park.

Hidden Oaks Nature Center, at 7701 Royce Street in Annandale, offers educational displays. programs for children. and live animals, including turtles, snakes, and toads. It’s adjacent to Annandale Community Park.

Features: The newly renovated and expanded Hidden Oaks Nature Center has two classroom spaces; a 3D microscope; and a reading corner for kids.   

Outdoors, there are trails, a pond, and Nature Playce, a play area where children can explore natural materials, such as wood, leaves, and, mud.

Access: In addition to a parking lot at the center, Hidden Oaks is also accessible on paths from the parking lots at the Fred M. Packard Center at 4026 Hummer Road and Annandale Community Park at 4030 Hummer Road.

Improvements: A major expansion and renovation at the Hidden Oaks Nature Center was completed in summer 2022.

A new wing was added with a large classroom, staff offices, and a kitchen. Outdoor improvements include a pond, pavilion, landscaping, and a kid-friendly water pump.

In 2019, chainsaw artist Andrew Mallon created a sculpture from the trunk of a tulip poplar that was struck by lightning for the center’s 50th anniversary. He also carved a gate for Nature Playce in 2022.

Events: Hidden Oaks hosts an extensive series of educational and fun programs for children of all ages, including sessions on science and nature topics, snake and turtle feeding, tea parties, craft projects, and campfire stories.

There are sessions on the monarch butterfly migration, flying squirrels and other local wildlife, dinosaur egg hunts, and much more.

The nature center also hosts summer and school break camps and special programs for Scouts.  It’s also available for children’s birthday parties.

History: Hidden Oaks, Fairfax County’s first nature center, opened in 1969. At the time, the Park Authority headquarters was next door at the Packard Center.

Volunteers: Community members are invited to join the Friends of Hidden Oaks Nature Center, a grassroots organization that helps take care of the animals and plants, carries out other projects, and supports environmental education.

The Friends group was founded in 2003 when the center was threatened with budget cuts.

Hours: 12-5 p.m. on weekends and holidays; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on weekdays. The nature center is closed to walk-in visits on Tuesdays.