Wander Woods is a wonderful antidote to our digital daily life, a place to reconnect with our wonderful natural world.
Positioned outside beneath beautiful old-growth cypress trees overlooking Golden Gate Park, Wander Woods offers multi-sensory discovery and literacy openings through areas devoted to crawling, climbing, and other imaginative play conditioning.
Constructed from locally- sourced accoutrements like rescued trees, Wander Woods features a variety of stroller- and wheelchair-accessible play spaces that give callers an immersive way to explore the natural world. The team at Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds designed and built the “Wander Woods” to be a fun and learning natural space for children to explore away from todays technological distractions. The collaborative idea was to produce a space that enabled children and grown-ups to interact with nature and their surroundings while engaging, and challenging their senses.
Winding pathways take callers on an disquisition of the theater , revealing a hands- on area where guests can make their own space from natural elements , a space for nature – driven creativity and honing fine motor chops, a log lair to bottleneck through, and a hillside nest and perch that provides a thrilling new view of the entire theater .
Under the gnarled branches of old-growth cypress trees and amid beautiful new native plantings, kids can cavort on giant logs, boulders and other natural play components, meander through tree trunk mazes, navigate wheelchair-accessible paths, and survey the scene from inside a whimsical nest structure. Through outdoor play, fine motor skills, critical thinking, and creativity are strengthened, and lifelong connections to the natural world take root.
“ Wander Woods will offer hands- on guests that unleash imaginations and foster a deep connection with nature. This kind of place- grounded environmental literacy is important, helping children view themselves as part of, not piecemeal from, the natural world, ” said Scott Sampson, Executive Director of the California Academy
From observing a bug bottleneck to balancing on a log, Wander Woods promotes inquiry- grounded conditioning that nurture collaboration and complex logic. Wander Woods is ideal for guests of any age to reflect, recharge, and awaken their connection to nature in the Academy’s newest out-of-door space.
