Hawthorn Natural Pond Area and Farview Nature Park and Horse Trail

2011 11 01 Back to Hawthorn Pond Natural Area, a 40 acre site, south of Adams Street on Black River Court in Holland Township.  It contains a five-acre freshwater pond that is ringed with a path, also has lookout sites, a kayak launch ramp and fishing stations.  
We were here on August 22 of this year, then there were machines working to make this place into a park.  Things are still scarred from the machines but next spring it will look better. 

We walked counterclockwise part way around the pond until we came to a bit of a trail heading over to the Macatawa River.  I have to say I'm not overly impressed by this river, the water is brown and cloudy. 

Of course we came to a deer trail and continued on it along the river, heading south then west towards highway
US 196 also known as the Gerald R. Ford Freeway, near exit 52.  Along the way we found some great trees, sycamores, paw paws, maples, oaks.

We walked north toward the pond and went through some very wet woods.  We even found smartweed blooming.

We came across this old car, Marie did some research and found out it is probably a 1955 Pontiac Chieftain.
Here are some maps, first map Hawthorn Pond is at the number 1.

The red line is where we walked, sort of, about 1 mile total.
Next we drove down the road southwest 13.5 miles to Farview Nature Park and Horse Trail (6257 138th Avenue Allegan County Michigan).  We were here last on August 23, 2010.

               Horse trail sign.

                More signage.

Historic Wait-Station for Electric Interurban Railroad.

Entrance to Farview Park

Bench at the pond.

Through the woods...

to the lake, Farview Lake.  The shrub with red berries is Winterberry (or Michigan Holly).  We found Nodding Ladies' Tresses but the petals were brown, far past their prime.

A few wildflowers still blooming!  Queen Anne's Lace, goldenrod,  and Spotted Knapweed  were blooming yet, along with this aster.

At the "top" of the lake we rested in a sunny, sandy spot.  Did some research in the tree books, Marie had a red dragonfly land right on the open book.  Nice.

Walking around the lake, we saw a Common Buckeye butterfly, a pintail duck, a yellow butterfly, Bayberry bushes, Blue Jays, and sunfish.

Top is the first Common Buckeye we saw, then 20 minutes later down the trail, another one.

Back to the car at 2:12, it was 62 degrees beautiful day for this late in the fall.

Ross Coastal Plain Marsh and Farview Park

Ross Coastal Plain Marsh in Van Buren County, Michigan is where Marie and I were able to go for a long walk, through the woods, on the first day of October 2013.  I had my eye out for Autumn Coralroot, which is an orchid and blooms into autumn, I have seen here before.

Parking on 44th avenue it is about one and a half miles  to  Mud Lake which is the largest lake at Ross Coastal Plain Marsh.  There are some house foundations here from the previous owners.

Remnants of a house at Mud Lake.

 At first I thought this vine was Poison Ivy but a closer look showed it was Virginia Creeper.

Then we saw an odd tan pile of something on the ground.  Directly above this pile we noticed hundreds of aphids on the branch of an American Beech tree.  Closer inspection told us it was a big pile of  aphid secretion.  We saw these piles a few times always under American Beech trees.  I guess these aphids are even called Beech Woolly Aphid or Beech Blight Aphid. I wonder why I never noticed this before? 

  

 We did find some nice looking Beechdrops.

We walked more than 3 miles, got back to the car and drove north.  In Allegan County, Laketown Township, we visited Farview Nature Park.  Another couple miles to walk, bringing our walk total to ~five miles for the day.

 Farview Nature Park

 That was it for this adventure, another fun time.

Michigan Fall Color at Long Lake

  Long Lake        
 2011 October 11  We were looking for fall color and while the sun was shining we found color. What a difference the sun can make. These two photos are with the early morning sun still low in the sky just lighting up the leaves, and the sky was quite blue, later it was a bit more hazy.

Long Lake (13747 Krauskopf NE Sparta, MI 49345)
is in Kent County Michigan, remember http://www.accesskent.com/CultureLeisureAndTransit/Parks/park_directory.htm


Kent County has many wonderful parks and a very good website.  When using a GPS it helps to have an address, addresses are included on this site, as are maps and a list of what you will find at each park.


Near the playground where there are maple trees with golden leaves, even if the sun isn't shining, it looks like sunshine.

Maybe we should call them Sunshine Maples.

Marie found one Nodding Ladies' Tresses still blooming!

We identified these asters as Heath Aster (Aster ericoides), there were lots of busy bumble bees.

 This little Wood Frog was curious.

The bugs were as busy as the bees.

The park wraps around the most of the north end of Long Lake, the very south end of the lake is private.  There are three entrances to the park, with the playground on the east side, a non-motorized boats only launch on the west side of the lake.

We left Long Lake Park with an hour of fun time left so on our way home we stopped in at Patterson Park in Muskegon County.  Patterson Park is located on the Little Rio Grande Creek two miles southwest of Ravenna on Blackmer Road, here is a site for Muskegon County parks, http://co.muskegon.mi.us/parks/index.html.

At Patterson Park there are many Sycamore trees, this is what the bark of the Sycamore looks like.

This composite was blooming, we didn't ID it, sort of looked like Woodland Sunflower, but it was nice to see.  Time to head home.