1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines, NC 28387
(910) 692-2167
weymouth.woods@ncmail.net

Education and events, exhibit hall, hiking

Special Spring and Summer Bird Events

Education and events
Rangers hold regularly scheduled educational and interpretive programs about Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve. Click here to search our database of park events.

To arrange a special exploration of Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve for your group or class, contact the park office.

Educational materials about Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve have been developed for grades 5-7 and are correlated to North Carolina's competency-based curriculum in science, social studies, mathematics and English/language arts. The Weymouth Woods program introduces students to to the life history of the longleaf pine. Major topics covered include plant adaptations, controlled burning and other resource management techniques, and methods of preserving natural areas. Accompanying the program is a teacher's booklet and workshop, free of charge to educators. To learn more about environmental education or to search our database of upcoming workshops, click here.

Exhibit hall
The exhibit hall at Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve allows visitors a deeper look into the significance of the longleaf pine forest. The interactive, hands-on exhibits cover topics from prescribed burning to geology, from flora and fauna of the park to the historical naval stores industry in the Sandhills. The 1,000-square-foot museum was built at Weymouth Woods in 1978 but was completely renovated in 2001. Exhibits include:

• A 10-foot-high "wall of fire," a lighted photomural that introduces the role of prescribed burning in restoring the fabled longleaf pine forests of central North Carolina.
• An underground diorama where visitors can crawl beneath the forest to view wildlife that seek shelter there.
• A large mural by illustrator Brooks Pearce that depicts flora and fauna in the park. Pushbuttons allow visitors to hear their calls.
• A naval stores exhibit that allows visitors to stir an old-time bucket of resin.
• A nighttime diorama allows visitors to experience "Darkness in the Pines," "Ghosts of the Sandhills Swamps and Seeps" and "Things That Go Bump in the Night."

The exhibit hall is located in the park visitor's center and is open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. daily. Interpretive programs are held in the auditorium of the visitor's center every Sunday at 3 p.m., April through November.

Hiking
Observe plant and animal life along more than four miles of well-marked, easy-to-hike trails.

Bower's Bog Trail is a short, looping nature trail that begins at the visitor's center and skirts the edge of an upland bog filled with ferns, pitcher plants and shrubs.

Pine Barrens Trail begins at the visitor's center and loops for one mile through open stands of longleaf pines.

Gum Swamp Trail, a half-mile loop, branches off Pine Barrens Trail, passes through a stand of hardwoods and travels along the edge of a swamp where James Creek flows.

Holly Road Trail connects with Gum Swamp Trail and loops 1.8 miles through the northern half of the preserve.

Pine Island Trail, a half-mile loop, is entered at the easternmost point of the Holly Road Trail and includes a 300-foot boardwalk over swampland.

Lighter Stump Trail, a half-mile route that connects Bower's Bog Trail with Pine Island Trail, is the most recently constructed trail.