HIGH POINT, N.C. — For a quick escape from COVID-19, take a hike!

The Piedmont Environmental Center in High Point, North Carolina, could be the perfect place for families to start to explore nature while staying close to several cities, including Greensboro.

“It’s amazing,” Dick Thomas, the director of the center, said. “You can get a half a mile into the woods, and you would never know that four-lane highways, subdivisions, shopping areas are almost within a stone’s throw.”

The Piedmont Environmental Center connects the High Point Greenway with Greensboro’s Bicentennial Greenway where walkers and cyclists can wind their way on wooden paths along a 23-mile stretch. The Piedmont Environmental Center offers an additional 400 acres with seven single track trails, including ones along lakes and streams.

This summer, the center is also offering guided “Creepy Crawling Hikes” for families.

“We take families out and roll over logs, wade in some of the creeks, turn over some of the rocks, looking for invertebrates and, for that matter, frogs, toads, salamanders,” Thomas said.

People also visit the trails for physical exercise or a mental escape, like Gabby Ramsey.

“It relaxes me, helps me escape, detoxify my mind a little bit, and just kind of re-center,” she said.

The Piedmont Environmental Center is located on Penny Road in High Point, North Carolina, and is open from sunrise to sunset. The restroom facilities are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.