Kids at Bays Day

Bays Mountain Park hosts annual Kids at Bays Day

Bays Mountain Park is hosting its annual Kids at Bays Day later this month as an opportunity for children of all ages to enjoy the outdoors while participating in a variety of engaging activities at the park.

Kids at Bays Day will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 18. All of the animal habitats, hiking and biking trails and the Nature Center will be open for discovery and exploration. In addition, food trucks will be on site and located behind the Day Camp cabin.

All of the following events are free with a $7 paid entrance fee:

• Mountain Bike Workshop: 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. in the bike parking lot. You must bring your own bike and helmet.
• Yoga for Kids: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the observatory lawn.
• Astronomy Day: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Lily Pad Pavilion.
• Growth Ring Challenge: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Nature Center balcony.
• Make a Mountain Toy: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Farmstead Museum.
• Rock Painting: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Farmstead Museum.

The park will also have free programs on snakes, raptors, wolves, growing plants and other types of animals that live in the woods. The observatory will offer a night viewing of the sky from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

“Kids at Bays Day is a great opportunity to get your children out of the house, away from their devices and to reconnect with nature,” said Megan Krager, Bays Mountain Park manager. “We’ll have a variety of programs happening all across the park that day, so no matter your interests we should have something right up your alley.”

In addition to the free programs, the park will also have its usual paid programs on May 18. Barge rides and planetarium shows are $6 per person and fishing off the dam is $10 per child (with required registration).

Kids at Bays Day is being organized by the Bays Mountain Park Association and is sponsored by Eastman Credit Union.

For more information about Bays Mountain Park and its programs, events and activities, visitwww.baysmountain.com.

About Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium

Annually, more than 200,000 visitors pass through Bays Mountain Park making it one of the State of Tennessee’s Top 50 Most Visited Attractions, according to the State of Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. One of the nation’s largest city-owned parks with 3,750 acres, Bays Mountain Park features roughly 44 miles of hiking trails, a state-of-the-art planetarium, wildlife habitats, fun exhibits, a 44-acre lake, ropes course with zip line, trails for mountain biking and much, much more. For more information, please visit www.baysmountain.com.

About the City of Kingsport

Founded in 1917, the City of Kingsport (pop. 55,400) is located on the Tennessee-Virginia border at the crossroads of I-81 and I-26 near the geographic center of the eastern United States. The city is widely known as a planned community, designed by renowned city planner John Nolen and wrapping around the foot of Bays Mountain – a 3,750-acre park, nature preserve, planetarium and observatory. Kingsport is recognized as an International Safe Community by the National Safety Council, a Healthier Tennessee community, and won the 2009 Harvard Innovations in American Government Award for its higher education initiatives. While many city names are duplicated throughout the U.S., there’s only one Kingsport – a fact that invokes community pride, known locally as the “Kingsport Spirit.” For more information, please visit www.kingsporttn.gov.