Art in the Wild at Wildwood Park and Olewine Nature Center

The Wildwood Park and Benjamin Olewine Nature Center is located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It's right off interstate 81 and within walking distance of Harrisburg Area Community College. If you need GPS coordinates: Wildwood Park 100 Wildwood Way, Harrisburg, PA. 17110.

Every year we like to visit the park and nature center with our family. Admission and parking is 100% free. However, if you want to leave a donation, you can do so at the nature center in the gift shop area. There are several parking lots that you can utilize, but in our opinion...the best parking lot to use is the Nature Center Lot.

Once you arrive you'll want to pick up one of the free maps or read the on-site map board to decide which route you would like to take. All of the routes (trails) are marked. Some are paved walking trails and others are wooden boardwalks. There are a few unpaved trails too. You can take baby strollers on most trails & boardwalks and a few are handicap accessible too.

Description of Nature Trails:

Towpath Trail is an easy, level trail that is approximately 1 mile in length.

Wildwood Way is a moderately difficult trail with several long hills. It's 2.1 miles in length.

Delta Boardwalk is an easy, level trail with a wooden walkway that is 0.4 miles in length.

Meadow Trail is a grassy trail that loops through an open meadow that's 0.2 miles in length.

North Boardwalk does not connect with any other trails and is 0.4 miles in length.

East Shore Trail is moderately difficult dirt trails that is 0.9 miles in length.

Tall Timbers Trail is a difficult dirt trail that drops from a ridge that is 0.25 miles in length.

Fox Run Trail is a primitive dirt trail that loops through wet woodland and is 0.25 miles in length.

Recently we went down to the Wildwood Park and Nature Center to enjoy the "Art in the Wild" program that runs from April 8th, 2017 through October 31st, 2017. The theme this year is "transition". All of the naturally inspired art is trail side, so you'll see it was you're walking around on the trails. Each piece is named and numbered.

We were able to pick up a trail map at the Nature Center that shows you were all of the art pieces are located and on which trails. I highly recommend you pick up that free map guide, so that you can find them all.

All of the art was conceived with goals of presenting quality outdoor art using natural materials. The works are composed of mostly natural materials to blend with Wildwood's nature setting. This year (2017) marks the fifth edition of the art event and I'm really looking forward to seeing it again next year.

There are 15 pieces of artwork in this year's show. Some of them were made by High School Seniors and other's were made by adults who live in the area. The map that you can pick up (free) will give you some information about each of the artists.

There are judges who judge each of the featured pieces of artwork and prizes are given out to first place, second place and third place. Then there are the People's Choice Awards where we (the public) can vote on which pieces are our favorites and prizes are awarded for those too.

Today we wanted to feature this annual Art in the Wild event at Wildwood Park and Nature Center as this year's event will be closing on October 31st, 2017. You can see some of the photographs that we took during our visit of the trails and some of the natural artwork that we spotted along the way. As a family...we had a great time and are looking forward to the art event in 2018.