Fontenelle Forest

Private Nonprofit Nature Preserve On The Missouri River Bluffs (National Natural Landmark Hedge) · Bellevue, Nebraska

Fontenelle Forest is a private nonprofit nature preserve of roughly 1,400 acres on the wooded bluffs and floodplain of the Missouri River in Bellevue, just south of Omaha. Founded in 1913 and named for Logan Fontenelle, a nineteenth-century leader of the Omaha people, it protects one of the largest blocks of mature oak and hickory forest left in eastern Nebraska, with deep ravines, loess ridges and, below them, marshes and backwaters toward the river. Its best-known pieces are the Riverview Boardwalk, an elevated, level walkway that carries wheelchairs and strollers out into the tree canopy, and Raptor Woodland, where owls, hawks, falcons and eagles that cannot be released live in open-air enclosures beside a boardwalk. Around them run roughly 17 to 19 miles of dirt trails, steep in the uplands and prone to flooding in the lowlands. It is a paid-entry preserve rather than a free city park, it is smaller and gentler than a state park, and it is at its best in May for warblers and wildflowers and in October for colour. Most visitors spend two to three hours.

1111 North Bellevue Boulevard, Bellevue, Nebraska, 68005, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the nature centre and trails open daily from around 8 or 9 am to about 5 pm, sometimes later in summer, and close on a few major holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas; trails are not open from dawn to dusk like a public park, and the gate is closed outside hours. Raptor Woodland follows similar hours. Lowland trails can be closed for weeks after floods. The traps that ruin a visit are arriving expecting free entry, turning up at dawn for birding before the gate opens, bringing a dog, and hiking the steep trails in smooth shoes after rain. Confirm current times before relying on them.

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