The Day of The Lost Scarf

2010 11 11 Marie and I treated ourselves to an extra day out this week because the weather has been just so nice!  In Michigan it is archery deer hunting and even in many of our Ottawa County parks they allow hunting.  So look out for the hunters. 

 We visited Hudsonville Nature Center, in well yes, Hudsonville Michigan.  NO HUNTING!  Here there are planted prairies, a mixed hardwood forest,  moraines, wetlands, and a flowing creek.  I think the creek is part of Rush Creek by I'm not certain of that.

We were here late in June and we found many plants blooming.  Plants are amazing.

                                                  Herb Robert

                                         Orange Hawkweed


                                                           Red Clover



So these were some wildflowers we saw in June now things are shades of brown not much blooming and soon things will be white with snow.

Next stop on this day was Grand River Park.  This is a great place for a walk.  No hunting and we thought maybe we could find the fruit of the Paw Paw that we spotted on October 18.  We didn't find the Paw Paw fruit, it is probably gone, eaten or rotted or maybe we weren't in exactly the right place.

The day after this Marie called me with a bit of sad news that she had lost her scarf.  It wasn't an expensive scarf, but it was a scarf she thought was just right, soft and purple.

Will she find her scarf next time?   

South To Saugatuck

2010 11 01 There really are not many wildflowers still blooming here in Michigan, Witch Hazel, Chicory, Queen Anne's Lace, Common Mullein, Red Clover, Hoary Alyssum, Bouncing Bet, Asters, Common Dandelion are some you might find bravely holding on to their petals!



We even had a bit of snow this morning (November 5), first snow of the season!  So for this adventure we choose a nice walk in the woods, the South Trail at Saugatuck Dunes State Park.


Most of the parks and places we visit are FREE!  No fee to get in.  Of course we do pay for these places with our tax dollars. Michigan State Parks require a fee for a sticker. 


So if you don't have a Michigan State Park sticker and you want to visit Saugatuck Dunes State Park it is very near Shore Acres Park 6602 138th Avenue, Saugatuck  (remember Laketown Township Parks from 2010 08 23).  It is free to park here and access the state park trails.


If you park at Shore Acres you will be right in front of the state owned Felt Mansion , which was built by inventor of the comptometer, Dorr E. Felt.  Cool.

On to the trail!  Saugatuck Dunes State Park is a 1,120 acre (4.5 km²) Michigan state park. It is located on Lake Michigan between Saugatuck, Michigan and Holland, Michigan.

                                                           South Trail at Saugatuck State Park

                                                       What is over this dune?

Lake Michigan of course!

Lake Michigan 

 We had plenty of day left to drive to Lawrence and Mary Bell Wade Sanctuary owned by Michigan Nature Association.  This sanctuary has 72 acres located three miles east of Saugatuck in Allegan County Michigan on the eastern end of Silver Lake. The Wade Memorial contains a lovely beech-maple forest as well as numerous dogwood and hemlock trees on a high bluff overlooking the lake. 


This sanctuary was given to MNA by the Wades, who were prominent citizens of Holland, Michigan. It is a fine example of a beech-maple forest with hemlocks that have grown back after a wildfire that occurred in the early 1900’s. Silver Lake abuts the southwestern portion of the sanctuary.

The view of Silver Creek from Wade Sanctuary

So after all this wonderful time in the woods and dunes, we went north for home but along the way we saw a house torn down by a machine.


                                                          So long house!
We had another great day with gorgeous weather, especially for November 1st! 

Fall Color at Ludington State Park

2011 10 24  It turned into a beautiful sunny day after a night of late October thunderstorms.  Temps in the mid 50's, blue sky.  Marie and I went to one of my most favorite trails, Island Trail with Lost Lake Trail at Ludington State Park just north of Ludington, Michigan.

We checked out some interesting rocks under the shallow waters of Hamlin Lake (this man made lake originated during the logging era when lumbermen dammed the Big Sable River to make an enormous holding pond for trees felled upstream).

                                   Maybe a Pike?

While on Bing maps online I saw one large interdunal wetland near the trail we would be walking on.  We ended up taking a side trip to find it. 

It was big, how big, well more like a small lake.  There were cattails, and lily pads, this place always has water, it doesn't dry up.  And I found Gerardia blooming, lots of it!  This was a very special place, quiet and remote.

On our way out of the park we just had to stop and check out some more wet areas. 

These wet areas dry up, and we found there wasn't much water here but lots of mud.  As soon as I started looking around I found just one Kalm's (Brook) Lobelia blooming! 

Just one flower.

We moved on to a place where last summer we had seen several Bladderwort. 
Remember the Horned Bladderwort from July 2010?

This is the land of Horned Bladderwort.

I was just saying to Marie, we were walking on future bladderwort when I looked down and found the Last of the Summer's -  Horned Bladderwort!! 

            There was just the one. 

What a great day!

Michigan in October = wildflowers?

On October 22, 2012  My sister Marie and I went for a 4 1/2 hour walk at Riverside Park in Ottawa County Michigan.  While on our walk we identified 27 blooming wildflowers!  That is pretty good for October in Michigan. 
We also saw two American Bald Eagles flying around and around over the Grand River. 

This is one of the eagles over the river...

Some of the wildflowers we saw blooming...

                             Common Dandelion

                                Wild Strawberry


                           Some type of fleabane

                             Common Chicory

                           Yellow Sweet Clover

                                  Bouncing Bet

We spotted one of the eagles landing in a tree across the river.  It was very hard to see it in that tree, about in the middle of this next picture.  I found a log to steady the camera on and zoomed in on the eagle...

 

So this is the zoomed in picture, which I thought turned out pretty good, since I had a hard time finding the bird in the tree way across that river.

 

 

We also came across this fungus on a tree with Poison Ivy growing right through it. 

I added the car key to show size, and it is a fairly large key.

 

 

 

This beautiful Common Buckeye butterfly was still hanging around.

 

 

As always it turned out to be a great day,

we do have fun. 

  

Mackinac Island in October

Mackinac Island covers 3.8 square miles in land area, it is in the U.S. state of Michigan.  It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

We stayed three nights at the Inn on Mackinac, a very nice Bed and Breakfast on the island.  Mackinac Island is certainly a tourist destination but things start to slow down on the island in October.  There are also numerous trails on the more remote end of the island where you can hike and not see another person.  

                                                         The Inn on Mackinac

 They don't use cars on this island, so we bring our bikes.  The first thing we do is take a ride around the perimeter of the island which is just over 8 miles.  

There are caves, and forests, and swamps on the island.  This photo above and below shows Arch Rock.

We visited some swamps along the way and found Fringed Gentian, but since it was cloudy the flower wasn't open.  Still pretty.

 This duck was sitting quietly in the calm back edge of a swamp.

The sun came out the first night we were on the island, but all four days were rainy, cloudy, or overcast.  Still we never got soaked by the rain, but later we did get soaked...

The day we left the island there was more sun but it was cooler, 
~ 55 degrees F.  We use the Starline Ferry, they provide free overnight parking. We hopped on the ferry -  it looked something like the one in the picture below.

 

We...or maybe it was just me that wanted to sit up on top.  Mike wasn't so sure.  And, an employee did warn us that we would get wet sitting up there...  But we were so high above the water, right?  Like I said we didn't get soaked by the rain but we did get soaked on our 20 minute ride to Mackinaw City.  Ice cold water pelleted us several times, it was windy and so cold.  Maybe that part wasn't really fun.

Back to the car to drive the 5 hours home (wet).  I was hoping the sun would stay out so I could get some nice pictures of the trees in their autumn colors.  Ten minutes later it was pouring rain.  The windows were wet, very difficult to get a good shot of trees along the way.  But the sun did pop out and I decided to just enjoy the beauty. Some of the trees just made me say, "Wow!"  The colors are so vivid.  Every fall it amazes me!

 Another fun adventure!