McKinney Roughs Nature Park

Discover the secrets of nature and learn the fundamentals to navigate like a true outdoor survivalist. 

• Bullseye! Campers will practice precision target sports, such as archery, paintball and tomahawks, and use compound bows to learn accurate aim. 
• Get the point. Campers will create their own spear point or arrowhead from locally sourced flint. 
• Become a way finder. Campers will learn their way around the wilderness by using a map and compass to navigate their surroundings. 
• I will survive. Campers will safely start their own fires and build personal shelters with natural resources. 

Delve into the world of aquatic creatures to unravel the mysteries of their environments and way of life.  

• Grab a paddle. Campers will explore Lake Bastrop by foot and watercraft (kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, canoes or rafts) to see its cattail marsh and surrounding piney woods. 
• Snakes, turtles and gators, oh my! Campers will meet our animal ambassadors and learn what helps these animals adapt to their environment. 
• Let’s experiment. Campers will discover the importance of water quality testing using Secchi discs, turbidity tubes, and pH and Nitrate comparators. 
• Small but mighty. Campers will use microscopes to examine microorganisms that are essential to the food chain, as well as view the importance of external gill systems of invertebrates at multiple life stages. 

Gear up for grit and adventure to learn survival skills for various Texas ecosystems. 

• I will survive. Campers will safely start their own fires and build personal shelters with natural resources. 
• Is it edible? Campers will learn to forage for native plants and build a filter from disposable plastic bottles to purify water from natural sources. 
• You CAN play with your food. Campers will make cookies from local honey mesquite bean pods and yaupon tea from holly berries. 
• Call for help. Campers will create emergency signals using ground-to-air signals, mirrors and sound-producing devices. 
• Ready, aim, release! Campers will use atlatls, javelins, and bows and arrows to hunt wildlife targets. 

Get ready, space cadets, for a journey that is out of this world to discover faraway galaxies and beyond. Explore the stars, sun, night sky and more. 

• Blast off! Campers will engineer and launch solid, liquid and air-propelled rockets. They will also build a spacecraft landing recovery system to return astronauts to Earth safely with an egg-drop activity. 
• See like an astronaut. Campers will explore the solar system through Austin Planetarium’s Discovery Dome. 
• You can finally look at the sun. Campers will view sunspots and solar prominences with a specialized H-alpha solar scope. 
• Twinkle, twinkle, little star. Discover constellations and develop your own star-charting tool! Campers will learn all about constellations stars and how they are formed developing their own star-charting tool. 
• It’s an alien invasion. Campers will create alien-themed targets and play paintball. 

Embark on a journey down the Colorado River to explore its different ecosystems by watercraft. 

• Act like an archeologist. Campers will visit a local island to learn about the creatures that call it home and uncover oyster shells, petrified wood and gastropods. 
• Are we there yet? Campers will take a field trip to Lake Bastrop for a crash course in paddling, fishing and dip-netting for macroinvertebrates. 
• Turtle tracking. Campers will use a radio telemetry receiver to track the signal emitted from a transmitter attached to a live turtle in the field.  
• Small but mighty. Campers will learn about riparian ecosystems and the roles their tiny organisms play. 

Discover the secrets of ancient civilizations by visiting an archaeological site to uncover the past. 

• Excavation and examination. Campers will utilize digging boxes to observe their findings and learn to preserve materials. 
• Get the point. Campers will practice the art of flint knapping and create their own arrowhead using locally sourced flint. 
• Test your aim. Campers will use recurves or compound bows to learn archery and proper techniques on dinosaur targets. 
• Time for crafts. Campers will create their own pottery and petroglyphs using natural elements to mold clay pots and practice rock art. 
• Are we there yet? Campers will take a field trip to Dinosaur Park in Cedar Creek, Texas, to learn about the majestic animals that ruled our earth for over 150 million years. 
• Mmm, delicious! Campers will safely build their own fires using bow drills and make s’mores using indigenous chocolate recipes. 

Immerse yourself in the untamed wild and uncover all the secrets to mastering outdoor survival. 

• Outdoor MasterChef. Campers will safely build fires to roast marshmallows on scavenged branches, practice utensil-less cooking using oranges and grind food-grade crickets using a Molcajete 
• Follow the tracks. Campers will identify native animals by what they leave behind. 
• Know your surroundings. Campers will navigate the landscape and examine topographical maps to locate water and follow animal trails. 
• Time for crafts. Campers will create their own sturdy ropes from natural fibers, including braid and twist yucca and cattail leaves, then practice clove hitches, bowlines and square knots. 

Celebrate the diversity of our state’s wildlife and ecoregions by using all five senses to explore the ways local flora and fauna communicate in the wild. 

• Heightened senses. Campers will learn pneumonic devices to recognize common bird calls and discover how mammals use scent communication to send a variety of different signals. 
• What a catch! Campers spend the day at Lake Bastrop to learn how to fish and discover different kinds of bait.  
• Snakes, turtles and gators, oh my! Campers will meet our animal ambassadors and learn what helps these animals adapt to their environment. 
• Animal superpowers. Campers will identify mammal furs by touch and determine which species are carnivores, herbivores or omnivores by their skulls. 
• A new way to communicate. Campers will discover the unique traits of mycorrhizal fungi and how it acts as the social network of the forest floor in heathy ecosystems.