Last weekend we braved the cold to visit the Stick Man Trail at Alice Holt Woods. All across the country the Forestry Commission have teamed up with Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler to create various trails based on some of their most loved children’s books. Our nearest trail is at Alice Holt, and is home to the Stick Man trail, as well as a Gruffalo and Gruffalo’s Child sculpture.

The Stick Man trail is set up around Alice Holt’s accessible easy access route, so is suitable for pushchairs and wheelchair users. For older children, you can purchase an Activity Pack at the Visitors’ Centre for £3, but we opted just to follow the trail since Max is a little young for this.

Although it was cold, the day was sunny and we saw some lovely woodland sights.

Max isn’t keen on walking, particularly in the cold, but we’re trying to encourage him to do a bit more. As you can see below, this is going down well!

There are various activity points along the way, where you can take part (many of which you don’t need to have bought the activity pack either!)

The highlight of the trail for Max was the end, where we were greeted by a giant Gruffalo statue (and a giant Stick Man, although Max wasn’t remotely interested in Stick Man when there was a Gruffalo around!)

The trail took us around an hour at a slow pottering pace and many toddler related detours back the way we came, so is a good length for kids. We warmed up with a hot chocolate in the Cafe on the Green afterwards before heading home.

The Visitor’s Centre and Cafe open from 9.30, and the car park opens from 8.30.

Car parking is operated through a ticketless barrier system, and costs £1.80 for 1 hour, £3 for two hours.

The Stick Man trail and Gruffalo sculptures will be at Alice Holt until the spring. You can find your nearest Stick Man trail here.