Dinosaur Trail | Herschel Park

The prettiest park in Slough now has something for the children to do this summer. There is a Dinosaur Trail for the whole of August! I printed out the trail map on Monday and took the kids along to hunt for the 15 markers hidden around the park. It was a good challenge.

Location: Herschel Park – Entrances from Upton Close, Upton Road or Datchet Road through the Nature Reserve

Parking: FREE – small car park off Datchet Road SL3 7NR

Food: The nearest newsagent is on Albert Street if you want to buy refreshments, ice cream etc.

Toilets: Closed

Pushchair-friendly: Yes

Playground: No

Map

This is the trail map, which you can print out from here.

The Trail

The Dinosaur Trail has been organised by Active Slough as part of the Chalvey Can Family Challenge. There are a number of challenges listed, including the Dinosaur Trail. If you submit photos/videos of yourselves doing the challenges to this email address chalveycan@slough.gov.uk, you get entered into a weekly draw to win prizes. This is live until 31st August 2020.

There have been Xplorer trails in Slough in the past, which I have written about before (read here). Normally the Active Slough team would be there handing out trail maps and giving out certificates to children who finished the trail. This year though, coronavirus has put a stop to that – so instead, the 15 dinosaur markers have been tied quite high, and are there for the whole of summer rather than on one day.

We had a picnic when we arrived at Herschel Park before starting the challenge. Then, with our printed out map, Tyler led the way. He was really up for finding the 15 dinosaur cards. The start of the trail is by the kiosk at the main entrance to the park.

We followed the map in number order, and some markers were tricky to find – which made it more fun. Hint – some of the markers are not on trees, some are low, some are high 😉

As well as doing the trail, we also played Pokemon Go as there are quite a few Pokestops and a couple of Pokemon Gyms in this park (if you play the game, you’ll know what I’m talking about!). We also stopped to watch the ducks splashing about on the lake. Lily’s legs were getting tired, so it was good that we could stop and sit down whenever we needed to. Tyler, on the other hand, was really keen to crack on and find the dinosaurs!

We did find all 15 and it took us about an hour (including breaks). It can feel a bit weird doing this challenge and having no one to tell, but I have a top tip to make it feel more rewarding. If you film some Instagram stories while you are doing the trail and tag @activeslough, they might send you a message and even reshare your stories. We got a “Well done Tyler and team” message and it made us feel like they were with us virtually. That was really nice for the kids.

It was really nice to have something like this in our local area for the children to do. If you are local and don’t want to travel far, this activity is perfect. The park wasn’t busy which meant it was easy to social distance, but it wasn’t so empty that it felt unsafe – there were other families around as well as people exercising – and that was on a Monday afternoon.