PORTER COUNTY, Ind. -- Indiana Dunes National Park and City of Gary recently celebrated the completion of a new pedestrian bridge at the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education.

With the addition of the new bridge, the center will now be able to host children participating in ranger-led education programs along with the community and national park visitors.

To celebrate the new bridge, the public can join park rangers in a reopening event at the center on Nov. 23, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The afternoon is set to feature a variety of family-friendly activities including an outdoor nature play zone which features shovels, buckets, sticks and rocks that can be used to build a fort, dig a hole or just learn to play outside.

Guests can also help the rangers feed some of the center’s resident ambassador animals. There will be crafts for kids and a take home sun print made using objects they find around the Douglas Center.

For more of an adventure, you can take a ranger led hike through the miller woods, starting at 1:30 p.m.

The Paul H. Douglas Center is located in the western side of the national park at 100 North Lake Street in the Miller section of Gary.