Visit the Lake Forest Wildlife Discovery Center This Summer

If you love nature and appreciate a setting where wildlife stands patiently waiting to be uncovered, the Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, Illinois is the place for you.

A living natural history museum in the heart of Illinois, the Wildlife Discovery Center (WDC) provides an environmentally rich learning experience for people of all ages.

Here you will find out why the preservation and guardianship of our nations’ wildlife and the ecosystem that it calls home, is of unique importance.

The WDC has dedicated its resources to helping advance the stewardship of the our wildlife, as they get up close and personal with some of the rarest species of animals in the world, like the echoing Laughing Kookaburra, the carnivorous Gila monster, and the venomous beaded lizard.

The Lake Forest Illinois Wildlife Discovery Center is home to over 150 different types of animals including raptors, king cobras, turtles, and crocodiles.  The WDC boasts the largest public exhibit of rattlesnakes in North America. Indoor and outdoor exhibits feature numerous tanks of reptiles and amphibians, as well as bobcats, owls, and hawks.

At the Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, Illinois, reptile lovers have the chance to be face-to-face with Bubba the famous American Alligator, speak with reptile enthusiasts from area zoos, universities, museums, and nature centers, and participate in nature-based programs.

Experience the Middlefork Savanna Interpretive trail, which offers a relaxing mixture of wet and mesic prairies, oak savanna and woodlands, and sedge meadow and marshes. The Middlefork provides protection for this delicate ecosystem, along with the 25 acre parcel that is habitat for the nation’s highest quality tallgrass savanna.

Restored in the 1990’s, Middlefork Savanna’s award-winning facility became an outdoor learning center and national ecological research site for students and the public as a whole. It’s also a safe haven for not only endangered plant and wildlife, but also the environmentally sensitive wetlands of the Chicago River.

Built in 1917, Elawa Farm has been maintained on 450-acre lands in the Middlefork Savanna Forest Preserve and is one of the last gentleman farms that remain in the Midwest. Today, Elawa Farms offer visitors the opportunity to hike 4 ½ mile trails, while the farm’s 570-acre open prairie is conducive for hiking and cross-country skiing.

The organic community garden at Elawa Farm is one of the best kept secrets. The Garden at Elawa Farms is a restorative project from the early 1900’s and is utilized for produce harvested by volunteers and sold in an open-air market at the farm.  The garden also features other events like the Spring Plant sale, and the Holiday Market.

The Lake Forest Illinois Wildlife Discovery Center is a place for people of ages; a place where anyone can visit and appreciate wildlife and the delicate surroundings they call home. Here at Lexus of Highland Park, we are pleased to be located so close to such a wonderful wildlife center. If you are in the Lake Forest area and are interested in a new or used Lexus, visit our Highland Park dealership!