If you like hiking on well maintained trails through woods and prairies, bird watching, learning new things, picnicking, or just being outside, this is the park for you. The trails are open from sunrise to 10pm every day. Dogs are not allowed, except for Service Dogs. There are about 6 trails, ranging from .4 to 2.2 miles and are very well marked. There are benches scattered throughout the park.

A most beautiful park in every way!! I visited and walked around for about 3 hours enjoying the beautiful woods and streams and went back the next day to walk for another 3 hours just to be able to enjoy the rest of the park!! They have many miles of walking paths that are marked by color (there is a map/trail key by the parking lot or you can get one in the center). Most of the trails are dirt, wood chips, or raised wooden boardwalks that wind and twist throughout the various elevations of marsh, grassland, cedar, pine, and oak forest areas. I would highly recommend taking the entire yellow trail hike. It is somewhat challenging, but is ABSOLUTELY worth it!! Hiking through ancient oaks, and following boardwalks that have streams babbling beneath them as you wind you're way through nestled pine groves, fans, and grassy meadows was simply beautiful in every way. Every corner led you to another breathtaking area of some of Wisconsins most beautiful outdoors!! I took many pictures to show just a small piece of the beauty that this park contains and HIGHLY recommend that if you are anywhere near Waukesha, WI that you take the time to experience the simple beauty of this fantastic park!!

I love exploring here with my little guy.We always have a blast! We stay for hours and get completely lost in time. I love watching the deer from the tower,not to mention the view is pretty incredible. Come out n play!!

We enjoyed a 2 mile hike on the trails, checked out the flowers and the trees. The trails were in great shape and the field paths were recently cut. The trails were pretty well marked but we had a couple forks where we weren't quite sure where to go. Update 2022 - still a great place to go for hiking and checking birds. The trails have been updated significantly with boardwalks and more trail markers. Love it here.

A nice nature space to spend time with friends and family and trail along. Explore the beauty of nature. There was a customised halloween trail which is quite fun for kids. The park also very well maintained, so scenic and picturesque.

What a fantastic place for kids & adults! Score as well that this place is free!!! I would highly recommend this place to anyone who wants to learn more about nature or be with nature. The staff were amazing, especially since we were there with a huge school trip. I'd love to see this place in the winter if they do anything for Christmas time. I could definitely see a candlelight nature walk or something else. I will definitely be coming back here with my family.

What a great place to experience many different biospheres in a small area. This visit was early November and some fall colors were hanging on ! Great place for afternoon hikes! Retzer Nature Center is also an amazing place to educate our young to appreciate what treasures nature gifts to us!

Retzer Nature Center is a wonderful location for our community. We love going here in the fall for the scarecrow walk, the colors, and letting the kids play on the balance beam. If you are looking for a fun, outdoor, and free activity definitely go here! Please donate if you go frequently.

I'm a tree hugging hippie, so of course Retzer Nature Center is a haven where I go to run away from life for a couple hours. If you want to retreat deep into woods, prairies, and wetlands without truly roughing it on an extreme hike, Retzer is perfect. It's also very kid friendly and features a pollinator and sensory garden as well as a planetarium and a learning center for instructor-led activities about wildlife, nature, and taking care of our local ecosystems. I was first here around 2001-2004 in elementary school for a field trip. I remember learning about the different plants and going on a walk through the prairies. It was just one visit but contributed a lot to my love of nature, parks, and conversation. I finally made it back for the second time today in August of 2021 and got to enjoy Retzer as an adult. The shortest loop is about half a mile with a second loop about the same length. There are 3 loops ranging from 3/4 of a mile to just over 1 mile in length. These 3 intertwine together and you can easily create your own hike if you want something longer without trekking way out into the prairie. That's just what you get with the longest loop, the yellow trail, at 2.6 miles in length and branches quite a bit further away from the parking lot and restrooms. It appears to be mostly wetlands and prairies. However, the yellow loop does have some good stretches of boardwalk if that's preferable for you. Finally, there is an accessible trail but it is not a loop; it's a 1/4 of a mile paved and boardwalk trail. It is basically a path that connects the paved and boardwalk areas of the inner parts of the other loops. It's only about 5% slopes, but I would avoid it during the winter because the map states that snow is not removed from the trail. For those who like snowshoeing in the winter, Retzer has rentals and is open when there's adequate snow cover. I'm looking forward to trying that out this coming winter.

Great place to go hiking. Gets a little muddy with wet conditions.

Absolutely love this place. The natural playground keeps my 2 year old busy for quite a while. The flower gardens are beautiful and always full of pretty pollinators. The trails are very nice to walk. It is very rejuvenating and peaceful. The only negative thing about the place (that makes me sad) is seeing how poorly cared for some of the animals are. All of the box turtles have severely overgrown beaks. Some enclosures have dirty reptile carpeting which is notorious for harboring bacteria and is impossible to clean. I'm fairly certain the three toed box turtle was deceased today on our visit. It was in the same strange, lifeless-looking position an hour apart with its eyes swollen completely shut. No one was around for me to notify. The tank the albino snake is housed in is way too small, which does not allow for proper heat gradients and there is no enrichment for it, either. Thankfully kids are blissfully unaware of these things..sometimes I wish I was as well.

I am a local photographer who shot at the Retzer Nature Center in October 2022. This is a perfect location for engagement photos or family photos. The trees are gorgeous, there are lots of open fields and tall grassy areas. I highly recommend Retzer Nature Center!

What a gorgeous park! We came in on a Sunday so we didn't get to see the nature center itself but the walking trails were beautiful! We sort of meandered around and had such a good time. It's a really beautiful place and we really enjoyed our time

Sorry, but I thought it was kinda like staring at computer screen saver visualizations while listening to two 70's era Sanyo stereo speakers. Nothing very high fidelity about it really. It was kinda cool but not as spectacular as it was billed.

Great hike, despite it being a bit chilly. Wear some layers and warm up with some nice views of the rolling landscape. Plenty of trail through the woods to break the wind. We had snow on the ground, so it was nice to be walking on a boardwalk for much of the visit. Plenty of little uphills to feel accomplished. To top it off, they have a warm nature facility with some small animals to view.

Went to see the James Hood Beutifica. It was a great show!! Planetarium was really nice and clean. They could update the brightness of the screens through, seems dim through the show here and there. We loved outer experience all in all though!

Retzner is a nice place to come to enjoy nature. There's plenty of walking trails with signposts of information of the layout of the land and some of the agriculture of the area, as the area used to be covered by a glacier many thousands of years ago. This is a place that is beautiful for photo ops as I usually see a lot of photographers come here to do photo shoots in order to capture the beauty of nature in their clients' pictures, I also enjoy the beautiful scenery. There is also a planetarium here at the nature center as well for those who would be interested in something like that for the children as something fun to do with the family.

A very nice get away from the city. Beautiful wooded land with many nature trails. Some trails are shaded, some open. Some long, some short. Very clean well kept place to enjoy nature.

Nice little hike for the family. Pretty busy when we went. Great fall colors. Easy trails.

This is a great little gem of a place in Waukesha. Free to visit, easy, beautiful trails and fun things for adults and kids alike. Fun place to take visitors too. Definitely worth a stop.

This place is such a great place to go for a walk!! The trails are easy and fun to follow. I love going to the top of the hill and getting to see for miles and miles! We’ve also seen so many deer here on our walks. Once, two walked right in front of us on the path! Very relaxing and beautiful place to enjoy an afternoon walk.

One of my favorite spots to hike! There is so much to see and do here with all the trails it never gets crowded. So many interesting sounds from nature you can truly connect with nature. Great place for families to explore and all different levels of hikes.

Still one of my favorite Waukesha parks. Got plenty of interesting prairie trails and is very pretty when the flowers are blooming. Highly recommended for place to walk. Good nature center too. Great for all ages.

Even though a good portion of trails are under construction at the moment it is STILL an awesome place! (This was my first time here)

A beautiful place to snowshoe and you can rent them for $6!

Scarecrow lane very cute and learning center great for kids too. Took my 3 year granddaughter and had a lot of fun.

Beautiful and educational place where we took our preschool grandchildren. And it’s FREE! Unless you buy them stuffed animals which we did. Beautiful outdoor paths not far from the parking lot. They especially liked the indoor taxidermy animal displays and the real live animals like the snakes, turtles and fish. We will be returning often.

This is a wonderful place for a multi-generational family picnic and hike. The trails have some challenges but aren't too strenuous. The displays inside the Visitors' Center are very interesting and spark many great conversations with the children. We've been coming here for years and it's always a wonderful outing.

Beautiful park all times of the year, been one of my favorite things about waukesha since I was a kid.

We walked along trails that varied in terrain (cut grass, paved, wooden bridges, woodchips). It was a great hike with little kids. There were some nice hills to climb too so it wasn't all flat. My 3 year old climbed on the tree logs and absolutely loved it. Did not go inside but there was an Earth Day event where lots of tables were set up with different activities. All the people were very nice and my son got to touch a snake. Very cool!

Retzer is a great place to bring children. Inside there are exhibits about local wildlife, rocks and minerals, and recycling. There is an explanation of how the center is geothermally heated. Also The local planetarium is located here. Outside there is a new natural playground/classroom. Plus there are several miles of well maintained hiking trails including a memorial boardwalk. In the winter you can rent snow shoes.

Beautiful hiking trails! Very peaceful! Great place to get lost for a few hours :)

Had a wonderful time with my two year old grandson and my 75 year old mother! We were able to explore the visitor building which he loved! The planetarium invited us in to their visitors area for some quick kid friendly info too! We had a great hike! Thank you for continuing to share the wonders of nature to all ages! I have been coming here since about 1980!

Wonderful place for parents and kids! Planetarium show was educational, display exhibits of animals was interesting, trail walks was good exercise.

Super glad I was able to find this gem. The trails are well marked and full of life! Definitely recommend taking a stroll through here.