6 Best Sights in Frederick and Western Maryland, Maryland

About 6 mi from Catoctin Mountain Park, this preserve/zoo holds more than 350 animals on some 30 acres. The zoo is easily navigated by children, and the tall trees and winding paths make for comfortable walking. Exotic animals here include tigers, macaws, monkeys, and boas. A petting zoo allows kids to mingle with goats and other small animals. Throughout summer there are interactive shows, when the little ones can touch snakes and learn about grizzlies.

The 1,818-acre Deep Creek Lake State Park hugs the eastern shore of the lake and has a public boat launch, small beach with lifeguards (in summer), and picnic and camping sites. The lake's indigo waters are breathtaking—literally. Even in summer the water can be chilly. At the park's Discovery Center are hands-on educational activities for children, a freshwater aquarium, native animals on display, and a small gift shop. The center is also a staging area for organized outdoor activities, including boat tours.

A full-size model of a triceratops skull welcomes you to the Discovery Station and Hagerstown Aviation Museum, the first hands-on science museum in Western Maryland. Set in a former bank building, the museum allows kids to work the controls in the cockpit of a Cessna plane, squeeze through a model of an artery, and dig in sand for dinosaur fossils. Other popular attractions include a National Institutes of Health–sponsored exhibit on the eye and a model of the solar-powered NEAR spacecraft which traveled more than 200 million miles from the sun to explore asteroids.

Dubbed "Hub City" due to its importance to the Western Maryland and Baltimore & Ohio railroads, Hagerstown has a rich railway history. It's been more than a decade since the city demolished the roundhouse (a circular building used for repairing steam locomotives), but the museum preserves several cabooses, locomotives, and trolley cars as well as other railroad artifacts and memorabilia. During the Christmas season the elaborate train gardens are particularly enchanting.

The home of Maryland's first governor, Thomas Johnson, the mansion has been reinvented as a children's museum. Costumed interpreters lead kids through the house and grounds, where they can dress up in period clothing, weave on a loom, and play with reproductions of toys from the 1700s and 1800s. Visitors can also explore a collection of carriages, a log cabin and blacksmith shop, herb gardens, and a smokehouse.

Puffing through dark stone tunnels and along majestic cliffs, this scenic rail excursion allows passengers to relive the glory days of trains in Cumberland and beyond. A 1916 Baldwin locomotive carries you uphill through the Narrows and scenic mountains as a narrator explains the region's history. The journey is 32 mi (3½-hours) round-trip to Frostburg. A 90-minute layover in Frostburg, a college town, allows time for lunch at one of the many restaurants on the city's main street, just up the hill. A diesel engine typically runs on weekdays, with the more popular steam engine saved for weekends. For a fun twist, try dinner and drinks on a murder-mystery train or take the kids on the North Pole Express at Christmastime.