I had only been to Maymont once prior to last Friday, so my adventure started when I couldn’t find the nature center. I drove to the only entrance I knew of, walked around for a bit, and fell in love with Maymont even more because of my lack of direction. I dragged my friend Monika along on the trip with me, but it took only one look at the gardens for us to decide Maymont was worth the trip. It’s certainly a place I’d love to explore more, but we were there for one true purpose only, and we were in a bit of a time crunch, so we checked out the park directory and drove around some more until we finally saw the nature center.
I was shocked, firstly, at how nice the building is. It was not at all what I was expecting. I must admit, I was a little apprehensive about going to see the watershed exhibit. I pictured it to be a small, factual, and boring exhibit in a little nature center, but I was more than pleasantly surprised. As I stepped into the first exhibit room, I saw the interactive topographic map and was immediately interested. While these maps normally don’t interest me in the slightest (Oops! Probably shouldn’t admit that in a geography class…), I was interested because this map covered an area I actually knew about. It was neat to see the map light up where the Jackson and Cowpasture meet at the Iron Gate to form the mouth of the James, and it was even more satisfying to me because I now know about these exact places.
This was just the beginning of the exhibit, though. The sound of rushing water that was roaring away in the other room was enough to entice anyone to continue. I was not expecting the exhibit to be as large as it was when I walked into the next room. My friend and I just turned to each other and both exclaimed, “This is sooo cooolll!” (We’re about as lame as they come, we know). Immediately, we were like little kids at a zoo. We ran around looking at all of the aquatic fish, turtles, and frogs. It was apparent that most of the interactive points of the exhibit were aimed for children much younger than us, but we played with them all the same. I didn’t really learn anything new, but the exhibits did reinforce what we have learned thus far in class, and I’m sure when it comes to the parents and children that typically visit the nature center, the exhibit is extremely informative.
Aside from all of the neat aquatic life that I had no idea existed in the James, there were two aspects of the exhibit that stood out to me as my favorites. The first, surprisingly, was the model-size replica of a fish ladder. Because my group didn’t go to the dam and we weren’t able to see the fish ladder on the kayaking trip, I wasn’t sure exactly what the ladder looked like. This may seem silly, but sometimes pictures just don’t do the actual thing justice. It was neat to be able to put two and two together and really see how the fish ladder works.
My second favorite part of the trip, perhaps not for the most educational reasons, was the river otter exhibit. Those little stinkers were just so darn cute and entertaining! My friend and I took way too many pictures of them, and with them, but it was certainly a nice way to end our day off campus, just laughing at the otters and following them on the outside of the glass as they swam and frolicked through the water in their tank. I definitely want to go back to Maymont soon to explore more of their other animal exhibits as well as the multitude of other things the park has to offer. It’s certainly nice and reassuring that a park as nice and well-maintained as Maymont doesn’t rely solely on it’s aesthetic beauty to draw in the crowd. It’s nice that there is such a nice nature center and an obvious focus on educating the people who visit the park about the surrounding area.
(Just a little Nature Center fun and a selfie with the otters…)