A day trip north

2011 05 21  Mike and I went north stopping at Gale's Pond County Park NE of Shelby Michigan.  That's Oceana County.  Gales Pond County Park is located on Filmore Road in Elbridge Township and is just under 19 acres in size. The park has a 2500 foot  boardwalk that extends across the pond and links up with nature trails along the back portion of the park.

We found Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) blooming.

                                       Purple Avens

Wild Lily of the Valley

Gale's pond is a cool place with lots of Cedar trees.

We walked around Doolittle Park right there near Gale's Pond, many American Beech trees have been removed.

On to La Fiesta in Hart for lunch.  Then a quick stop at 6 mile bridge, there is a trail here that I would like to explore, next time. 

At 6 mile bridge

We popped in Garletts Corner Store (M-37 and M-55)  Wexford County.  And just north up M-37, oh about 2 miles on the west side of the road are woods filled with trillium, violets, and various spring wildflowers.  We stopped in there too.

One of those great little places you pull of the road onto a two-track and enjoy.  I think it is part of the Manistee National Forest.  We went to what I call Cool Place, because it doesn't have a name, it is along Warfield road about four miles north of M-55, more Manistee National Forest land.  Here we saw Fringed Polygala (Polygala paucifolia).

The rain started to come down so off we went home.  What a wonderful day.

Memorial Day Weekend Over Grand Haven, Michigan

Memorial Day Weekend 2013

A great weekend, our son Andrew was visiting from Texas, so we all went hiking, kayaking, and flying. 
 
The best part was flying over Ottawa County.  Since I have lived here all my life, and I visit parks and places weekly, throughout the year with my sister Marie, I am quite familiar with this area.  I particularly enjoyed flying over the Grand River and bayous.
I took tons of photos and it is great fun to identify what you are seeing below.
 
We took off from the Grand Haven airport in a rented Cessna 172 Skyhawk, four-seat, single-engine, high-wing fixed-wing aircraft.  Andy piloted the plane.

                             Grand Haven, Michigan airport

Our first trip up we flew east to Allendale, Michigan following along the Grand River.  The picture below shows one of my favorite areas to hike, Bass River Recreation Area, owned by the State of Michigan.  Also, Ottawa County Open Space Land, Bur Oak Landing.  This shot is looking northwest.
  

 

 Pottawattomie Bayou - just after take off.

 See on the right side of this picture is the runway we just took off from. 

 Parts of Grand Haven, Ferrysburg, and Spring Lake are visible in this photo. 
The US-31 drawbridge is center left, Lake Michigan is in the far upper left.
 

 Center right is the float bridge snaking across the marsh at Hofma Preserve and Park, owned by Grand Haven Township.  
 

 

Lake Michigan - Grand Haven north and south piers

 I will need a few weeks to sort the hundreds of aerial shots from that day.
Saturday we took a day trip to hike the Manistee River trail.

 

On the flats along the Manistee River I found Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) blooming.  This plant is in the Figwort family and is usually found in moist meadows.



 

 This is the suspension footbridge across the Manistee River below Hodenpyl Dam.  It links the Manistee River Trail on the east side of the river with a section of the national North Country Trail on the west side. This creates a 20-mile loop hiking experience where wildflowers, wildlife, and bird species are common sites. We walked to the waterfalls and back, not the 20 mile loop.

Family and fun - a great weekend!

Parks Nearby

May 6th 2011  Betsy and I were heading up to the Lakes Mall but on the way we made a few stops.  First East Grand River Park (we call it East End Park) on the east side of Grand Haven.  Updates have recently been made to this park, new playground equipment and new boardwalk through the marsh and right to the Grand River. 

      From the new boardwalk at East End Park
We didn't see any flowers near the water, just violets and Storksbill (Erodium cicutarium) in the lawn.


   There was work being done at the boat launch.

   New Playground Equipment at East Grand River Park
Another quick stop was made to Rycenga Recreation Area (16401 Hemlock Dr, Spring Lake, MI 49456).  This is a good park to see Pink Lady's Slipper  later in May, there was no sign of them yet.  We did see many Marsh Marigolds and violets.  There is a nice boardwalk and bridge over the stream.

    

Yankee Springs Recreation Area and Ronald H. Warner Sanctuary

May 21 2012 We drove ~65 miles southwest to Barry County Michigan to Yankee Springs Recreation Area, Long Lake trail.


From "Stormhorn" blog, http://stormhorn.com/  we knew to find Small Yellow Lady's Slipper orchid on this trail and hearing there was a quarter-mile stretch of boardwalk through part of the swamp that surrounds Long Lake, oh, sounds fun!  Thanks again to Stormhorn.


We have been to Yankee Springs in the past, the Devil's Soupbowl, Graves Hill Overlook, The Pines.  So many neat places.  We even camped at Deep Lake years ago, but how I never knew about this Long Lake trail, I don't know.


So this is what we saw...

Small Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum)  Orchid

 

We walked about a mile and a half to a meadow with some old foundations. 
Here is the meadow...

                            Cow Vetch

  Yellow Goat's Beard (Tragopogon pratensis) Aster family  with fly.


The next few pictures are of a American Copper Butterfly, I'm pretty sure. 
He seemed as interested in me as I was in him.

After the Long Lake trail we drove through Gun Lake State Park, and stopped at the Long Lake access site.

Now it was after 2 pm I wanted to run over to Ronald H. Warner Sanctuary (Michigan Audubon) to check on a Puttyroot orchid there.  We had seen the leaf of this orchid last fall.  So off we go traveling a few miles east to Warner.  We didn't find Puttyroot.

We did find a field with pansy.  Another late day, but wonderful even though it was cloudy all day.

East Grand River Park (East End Park)

2011 05 20 We were here for our grandson's baseball practice and we "strollered" through East Grand River Park with our granddaughter.  Betsy and I were here two weeks ago, they have finished the new walkway along the Grand River. This is a nice quiet city park.

Along the marshy area I found Cursed Crowfoot (Ranunculus sceleratus), it is in the Buttercup family.

   Along walkway at East Grand River Park Grand Haven.

              New fishing dock at East Grand River Park

Aman Park in the rain

2011 05 19 Betsy, Tilly, and I took a trip to Aman Park, as we drove the 23 miles to the park it started to rain then rained harder.  But Betsy said she didn't mind walking in the rain and I knew Tilly didn't mind so we continued on.  We did get wet and the mosquitoes were hungry.
We quickly walked the north loop.  We saw the hundreds of Virginia Bluebells I had wanted to see.

  Patch of Virginia Bluebells

  Virginia Bluebells

   Sand Creek at Aman Park in Ottawa County

With the rain coming down the leaves were spring green.  I did find Green Dragon but it wasn't quite blooming.  Thanks Betsy and Tilly for going with me. :)