Friday, April 7 (9 am-1 pm) 
Leader: Melanie Choukas-Bradley
Members $40; nonmembers $56
We’re delighted that the author of the award-winning book, A Year in Rock Creek Park and the critically acclaimed, City of Trees, will offer her 17th year of Nature Forward walks in the country’s oldest urban national park. Under her expert guidance, you will witness the annual floral miracle of Virginia bluebells, spring beauties, and trout lilies in the floodplain forest, while the leaves of tulip tree and American beech begin to spill from their buds. We’ll hope to catch bloodroot, wild ginger, cut-leafed toothwort and other blooming spring ephemerals as we explore both floodplain and upland woods at a leisurely pace. Time permitting, we’ll do a bit of “forest bathing.” Throughout, we’ll keep our eyes and ears open for belted kingfishers, wood ducks, migrant songbirds, and tiny spring peeper frogs. Expect some uphill/downhill walking on natural surface trails which may be muddy and/or slippery. REGISTER