Rust Nature Sanctuary

Rust Nature Sanctuary
802 Children’s Center Road
Leesburg, VA 20175 (map it)
(703) 669‑0000

Cost: free
Ages: all
Drinking Fountain: didn’t check
Restroom: Yes, when build­ing is open.
Parking: Easy
Stroller-friendly: No

Our expe­ri­ences:
Spring ’08: We have been attend­ing the Tuesday morn­ing fam­ily pro­grams and enjoy the morn­ing out with oth­ers. Come pre­pared for a short hike!

Feb. ’07: On Monday we looked for foot­prints in the snow at the Rust Nature Sanctuary. We were a group of three moms and six kids (ages 16 months –5 years). The lit­tle ones could barely walk in all their snow gear. We saw only on other car in the park­ing lot and did not run into any peo­ple or deer. On our walk down to the pond we saw deer, dog, and peo­ple foot­prints in the snow. There’s a trail head at the park­ing lot — this short trail is wide and well main­tained, but I do not think they allow strollers. On the short, down­hill walk to the pond you will see an out­door stage on the right (my son likes to enter­tain us there), an old car in the woods to the left and another mean­der­ing path.

Winter ’06: We par­tic­i­pated in a children’s nature pro­gram geared at 2 and 3 year olds. We were impressed with the age appro­pri­ate activ­i­ties (story, walk with binoc­u­lars to hold, search for bugs, easy craft) and look for­ward to future offer­ings and also to sign­ing up for the sum­mers camps the sanc­tu­ary offers. The instruc­tor was also the pro­gram coordinator.

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