Nature Center and Planetarium

About the Nature Center

Start your park experience with a visit to the Nature Center at Rock Creek Park. Friendly staff are available to answer your questions and help you plan a visit.

The Rock Creek Park Nature Center serves as the park's visitor center and offers hiking information, brochures and maps, a bookstore, exhibits on area plants and animals, and has the only planetarium in the National Park Service. Many of the park's ranger-led programs start or take place at the Nature Center.

The facility includes a children's Discovery Room offering environmental education books and games and a "Discover Rock Creek" bilingual (Spanish and English) exhibit geared for elementary school audiences. The Nature Center also includes live turtles, and snakes, a bird observation deck, and "water-wise" garden.

A one-half mile self-guiding interpretive trail, the Woodland Trail, begins behind the Nature Center, while a one-fourth mile wheelchair-accessible Edge of the Woods trail begins right out the front door. The Nature Center is wheelchair-accessible with assistance.