Plants Amaze Me: Grand River Ravines North in November

2011 November 07
Grand River Ravines North

The new entrance on 42nd Ave (just south of Luce St and south of Grand Valley State University) is open, parking is about 1/2 mile from the Grand River.

We walked the .5 miles on a paved drive, to the left of us was a deep ravine,

to the right was a field full of dried wildflowers. And Tulip trees!

Leaf of the Tulip Tree

As we neared the river we veered off to the north, up over the hills to a wonderful ravine where we found Paw Paw trees! Up maybe15 feet off the ground we spied the brown fruit of the Paw Paw.

We managed to knock it free to examine it. It was very ripe. We found the seeds are quite large, well it is a big fruit. I think this is about as far north as Paw Paws grow in the wild.

Eww!

Paw Paw seed

Leaf of the Paw Paw tree
We headed up over the next hill into another ravine, no Paw Paw here. This property is part of GVSU I think, but there are no signs to indicate that. At some point we went a bit inland along a creek, and admired more ravines and hills. Then we went back to the main part of the park which has a house and pole barn on it. Grand River Ravines North is ~ 1.25 miles south of M-45 along the Grand River.

Grand River

We walked through the small covered bridge near the edge of the river, and found mustard plants blooming.

We also found goldenrod, asters, and Chicory with flowers. This was in November, that's late for wildflowers to be blooming in Michigan.

We walked south of the house and saw an American Bald Eagle high up in a tree next to a nest.