The platform descended fairly quickly, bringing them down on the side of the building opposite of the dock.
Down in the canyon, at the edge of the lake within, was a building with a large sign on top of it labeling it as a Nature Center. From the front, the building was made of brick, with a pair of overhangs leading up to the glass entrance that, at one point, had automatically opening doors. They did not open automatically anymore.
Inside was well maintained, aside from a lair of dust over everything. This place seems to have been made for tourists, with a desk set into one wall with a list of prices and an old cash register, and large public bathrooms on the other. The walls narrowed into each other, funneling into the main area of the nature center.
Moving past the turnstiles that separated the entrance from the rest of the building, it's made apparent that the entrance is actually on the second floor. Before them stood a large room with a high glass ceiling, along with the back wall also being entirely glass. It was dirty, dingy glass, but the sun still could shine through, and the glass allowed for a pretty stunning view of the canyon. There was about ten feet of platform, at the edge of which was a large, fake waterfall from that floor to the one below, built into some fake rocks. On either side of the waterfall, staircases were build into the curve of the room, allowing an additional view of the room below. On the ground floor, the waterfall ended in an artificial lake, with clear walls built up that suggested that at some point, fish may have been kept in the tank. Since the power was on, the waterfall was still functioning.
There was a collection of displays taking up the rest of the main room, and each of those displays was a piece of taxidermy. So much taxidermy, all mounted on slightly elevated displays behind railings, but not behind glass, so with no supervision, anyone could touch the stuffed animals. It wasn't taxidermy that might give them any hint of where they were in the world, unfortunately. There was a bobcat, a pair of deer, and a wolf, but also a zebra, a wallaby, an alligator next to a crocodile, and a large, standing polar bear. And birds. So many different types of birds from all over the planet. The first of the lanterns was perched in the open jaws of the Polar Bear.
Downstairs, past the various taxidermy, was another set of automatic doors, leading out to a wooden landing that sat over the edge of the lake, with a long dock stretching out from the middle of it. There were a few benches and tables, but little else.
Back inside, looking past the waterfall, there were two doors, both leading to a second room that sat below the main lobby. This opened up to a children's educational play area, with nature themed activities. There was a space to do pencil rubbings of different leaf shapes provided on metal plates. Along one wall was a series of arm-sized holes, which, while they might remind some of one of the more common challenges back at the Mount Zenith town, these just provided different textures of animal skins, like fur, scales, and feathers. Along the ceiling was a tangle of clear, thin pipes, that came down on either side of the room. The pipes started and ended by crates of plastic orange balls, that would could be sucked up and zipped across to the other side of the room, apparently teaching something about agriculture going off the signs, though how exactly isn't entirely clear. There was a small sand pit off to the side with fake dinosaur bones for play excavation, and in the back of the room was a three-level padded play area that offered different foam obstacles and wound around in ways that made it easy for a kid to get lost in. Like an upscale McDonalds playplace. The second lantern is on the fourth level, in a section of ropes stretched from floor to ceiling that is much easier for a child to navigate than an adult. Expect to have to crouch the entire way up, at the very least.
There's one last thing. In the childrens' activity room, hidden in a mural of trees and animals, almost camouflaged into the background trees, was one of the creatures that Chase, Ivy, and Scotty encountered. It's easy to miss, but it's definitely weird that it's there.