Landis Woods

Quick Bits

Main Activities - Hike, Bike, Birding
Distance - 3.6 miles of trails
Quiet - somewhat quiet with some street noise
Surface -  wood chip and dirt trails in good shape
Elevation -  relatively flat
Pets - on leash
Address - 2369 Lititz Pike Manheim, PA

In a Nutshell

A pleasant and rich environmental nature area with miles of trails and nice interpretive signs. Some older growth trees. Bonus that it is open until 10:00PM.

Location and Parking

More details

Landis Woods is a wonderful resource that I found while visiting family and friends in Lancaster County and had a couple hours free. At just under 70 acres, and considering it is a township park, it's a good size. The trails are very well maintained. Several are wide enough to walk two-a-breast and are woodchip coverd. Other trails are dirt covered. Throughout the park are interpretive signs. During my time there I heard countless birds (Spring time). Some other hikers I spoke to mentioned Great Horned Owls can be found in the preserve.  Some of the trees seemed older growth, including some very tall Tulip trees.

Another fun thing about this nature area is that it is open from dawn to 10:00PM, though I didn't get to experience it at night. The other hikers that mentioned the Great Horned Owls mentioned after dusk was a good time to look for the owls.

I didn't have time to go inside the Boettcher House, but it looked interesting. It serves as a Nature Center and is home to the Boettchner Nature Pre-school. That seems very cool. The house was built in 1920 by Henry Boettchner who was a German immigrant that had success at the Armstrong Flooring Plant in Lancaster as an architect.