Thank you to mami2jandc for letting me know about this one. She mentioned Clemmons Educational State Forest in a post on best places to walk. I'd never heard about it and had to check it out.

It's great!

My preschooler loves the outdoors, but she's not the best hiker in the world. I wasn't sure how far we'd get on the trails when we headed off to the Clemmons in Johnston County recently for a hike and a picnic.

But these trails are a little different. They've got talking trees and rocks.

Tucked away off a country road in Johnston County, Clemmons Educational State Forest is home to the Talking Tree trail and Forest Geology trail (also called the talking rock trail). At points along the trails, which each are less than a mile, there are posts with recorded information about a tree or rock nearby.

Just press a button and you can learn more about loblolly pine or dogwood, granite or sandstone, for instance.

A longer demonstration trail, which we didn't explore, includes information about different forestry practices, including how forests are thinned, harvest techniques and how forest products are measured.

A fire tower is open to the public, though at 30 feet is shorter than the usual tower which usually extends 100 feet.

Clemmons is a working forest and part of the N.C. Division of Forest Resources' network of seven educational state forests across the state. There are similar trails and information at the Jordan Lake Educational State Forest on the west side of the lake, north of U.S. 64 off of Big Woods Road.

At Clemmons, timber is harvested when the trees are mature and need to be thinned, typically in the winter when the forest is closed. Controlled burns also are planned at the same time when needed. The forest is about 850 acres, though the public only sees a small portion of it.

Clemmons is one of the busier forests with school groups headed there about every day, said Chris Carlson, information and education chief for the N.C. Division of Forest Resources. It's also a popular place for scouts and families, especially on the weekends when the picnic areas can fill up.

But on a recent weekday, there were a couple of buses of elementary school students and a handful of other people out exploring.

The talking trees and rocks were enough to push my daughter forward along the trails. She liked discovering the buttons to push and finding the rocks or trees that the recording mentioned.

The forest includes some nice picnic areas. The restrooms are being refurbished, but there were some very clean port-a-potties and a handwashing station.

One word of caution: This is a forest and we picked up a tick while we were there. So just take appropriate precautions: long pants tucked into socks and bug spray.

But a big shoutout to the office staff at Carolina Premium Outlets (which is about 18 miles away). We discovered the tick on my daughter during a trip to the restroom there. She was sobbing and I was very nervous. They took us into a back room. We found some alcohol pads and tweezers in their first aid kit. And we all survived. It was my first tick removal experience.

Clemmons is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., weekends. The forest is open from mid-March to mid-November.

Looking for fun activities for your kids? Go to www.trianglemom2mom.com/play and check us out every Thursday.