STL 250 Cake Quest - Eureka

If you are looking to do something outdoors with your kids that is free, low-key and relatively stress-free, you should consider heading to Eureka. Lone Elk Park, World Bird Sanctuary and the Endangered Wolf Center are all located very near to each other and make for an easy and fun outing with the kiddos! 

Click here for a printable PDF map.

Lone Elk Park

Lone Elk Park opened to the public on October 17, 1971.  
It serves as a wildlife management area with bison, wild turkey, waterfowl, elk and deer.

While there are some places that you can get out of your car and look around, Lone Elk Park is mostly viewed from the car. My kids love to take off their seat belts and hang out the windows looking for animals. They take their cameras along to try to get some pictures of the animals too.

We stopped to see their cake. It is located behind the ranger/visitor center. 

World Bird Sanctuary

World Bird Sanctuary was founded in 1977 by Walter Crawford, Jr. Today, Crawford continues to direct the organization he founded with a full time staff of 25 and 305 acres of Missouri hardwood forest.

They have nice bird houses made of real wood that you can have for a $2 donation.  Check out my World Bird Sanctuary post from last year.  We got a couple of bird houses and took them home to paint them and hang them in the back yard.

Clara is relaxing with a drink at the amphitheater where they hold many of their events and demonstrations.  

Here's a list of some of their upcoming free events:

Keeper Talks: Every Saturday & Sunday @ 9am 

Amazing Animal Encounters: Every Saturday (11:30am and 2:00pm)and Sunday (1:30pm) from Memorial Day to Labor Day

Birds in Concert: Every Thursday evening in August @ 7 - 8:30pm

Bird Banding: 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month through August

International Vulture Awareness Day: September 6 @ 10am - 3pm

Annual Open House: October 18th & 19th @ 10am - 4pm

Endangered Wolf Center

The Endangered Wolf Center was founded in 1971 by Marlin Perkins, longtime director of the St. Louis Zoo, and his wife Carol. Their mission is to preserve and protect Mexican gray wolves, red wolves and other wild canid species. The dogs in the new Painted Dog exhibit at the Zoo came from the Endangered Wolf Center.

We didn't have time to check out the Endangered Wolf Center but after I took this picture, a car drove up and a mom and her son got out to take a picture with the cake.  We started talking and she mentioned that her son has attended their Wolf Camp for the past 4 summers and loves it.  They also attend a lot of the other special event that they have during the year and they really like the Wolf Howls.

Wolf Fest 2014, the Endangered Wolf Center’s annual open house, will be held Saturday, September 27 from 9am - 5pm.

PS - Click here to see some of our other STL 250 Cake Quests.