The Rockwood Nature Center houses live snakes, turtles, frogs and occasionally other wildlife species. Kids and parents can look eye-to-eye with a corn snake, watch honeybees stir in their hive, or see a snapping turtle turtle basking on a rock. 

The nature center offers nature, awareness, and outdoor adventure programs for all ages.  Preschoolers can have their first encounter with wildlife and explore the forest.  Adults, older children, and families can take an archery lesson, learn about the wildlife of Virginia, or hear tales around a campfire.  Boy and Girl Scouts can earn badges, and teachers and home-school parents can set up a field trip to see everything the nature center has to offer or enlist a naturalist to come to their location for a hands on, fun filled nature lesson. 

Rockwood has over five miles of trails that ramble through forest, pond, wetlands and along Falling Creek. Trails are suitable for young and old hikers. Some trails are accessible for wheelchairs.

What's NEW for 2013?!

Have YOU caught the archery bug? New for this summer, Rockwood Nature Center and Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation is excited to offer a youth archery club for kids ages 8-16. This 8 week program will run on Tuesday afternoons from June 11 to July 30, 2013 for one hour each week with two times available (see below). During each class, participants will learn techniques, forms, and rules for target archery, as well as get to explore different types of bows (compound and recurve) and accessories and different types of targets. All while learning good sportsmanship and focusing on doing your personal best. 

This program will follow the After School Archery Program national curriculum and will be taught by a USA Archery and Archery Trade Association certified instructor. Bows and equipment are provided, or you may use your own with instructor approval. Purchasing your own arm guard is highly recommended. Archers will be provided with a "Skills and Drills" workbook and a club patch, with opportunities to earn achievement level patches as they make progress in their shooting abilities. Following the end of the summer sessions there will be a small archery tournament where kids can pit their new skills against others in their age brackets and try to take home a trophy!

Archery is a safe, popular and growing sport that can provide a lifetime of enjoyment. This club program is the perfect place to become better at archery on your path to pursuing Olympic style archery, bow hunting, field archery or any other style of archery, or even just for the sake of having fun! 

Ages 8-16
all abilities and experience levels welcome

Tuesdays, June 11th - July 30th
(end of session tournament will be either Aug 3 or 4, time and location TBA)
Session I: 4:00pm - 5:00pm     Course # 27183
Session II: 5:30pm - 6:30pm     Course # 27184
(sessions are identical, please sign up for the most convenient time)

Cost: $80 per session
(includes workbook, program patch, achievement patches, instruction and tournament awards)

To register, call Chesterfield County Parks and Rec at (804) 748-1623 between 8:30am and 4:30pm and provide the course number for the session you desire. Register early, sessions are expected to fill quickly! For questions or to make special arrangements for differently abled students, please contact the lead instructor at melody2874@gmail.com. You can also find ongoing details on the club (and photos of archers during class sessions) on Facebook. 

No archery experience? No problem! New archers are welcome, however any participant who has not taken the "Intro to Archery" course through Chesterfield County or participated in NASP at a county school must take an introductory lesson before beginning the program session. All archers are expected to know the range rules, whistle commands and basic shooting form by the first day of the sessions. Please contact the course instructor, Melody Scott, for details on introductory lesson costs and dates at melody2874@gmail.com.