Muskegon State Park and Riverside Park in Muskegon County

June 15 We had a fun day at Muskegon State Park! 

 

We saw Bur Reed.

We went off trail and were drawn to a bright place in the woods.  Here we found Sphagnum Moss and muddy areas.  Interesting!

We even saw a pink flamingo...

Back on the trail we found lots of Cow Wheat blooming.

           Lost Lake

   Some wild Cranberry was blooming, and in the water were cranberries.

 Blue Flag (Iris)

 

In places the shore was red with sundew...

 Since it was cloudy, most of the Blue Eyed Grass had their petals closed.  Here is one open that I found.

 There were so many Fragrant White Water Lily.

 Also a few Yellow Pond Lily.

 We checked on the Rose Pogonia Orchid, but as I thought, we were just a little early for bloom time.  Still fun to find.  Below is a photo of this plant blooming from a previous year.

Some other things we saw...

 

Frostweed, always nice to see this sunny flower.

So we left this cool Lake, the weather was getting more threatening, darker clouds, maybe a rumble of thunder.  I was ready to go to another place to explore, and we came up with Riverside Park in North Muskegon along the north branch of the Muskegon River.

Here there are ball fields, play grounds, picnic tables, but keep walking and you find some curious steps leading to a jungle. 
 

 

 

 



 

 

 

It did storm while we were out but we made it back up through the "jungle" just fine.  And we saw more Blue Eyed Grass.

    Another great day!  Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed our walks!

 

Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve and Muskegon State Park

2010 September 20.  We met at Muskegon Lake N. P. due to construction on U.S. 31. This is a nice little preserve with lots of boardwalks along Muskegon Lake just near the causeway. 

From the Boardwalk at Muskegon Lake N. P.                    

                              Blue Vervain

                  Bur Marigold

Next we went to a special place at Muskegon State Park, Lost Lake.

                        Cross-leaved Milkwort

                          Sand Jointweed
(noticed the green dots on two of the five petals, how curious! And this flower is tiny 1/8 inch) 

                          Sundew

Yes another great day!

Laketown Township, Allegan County, Michigan 2010 08 23

Another adventure day with my sister, finally!  It was a long week, and our wildflowering trips are necessary for both of us.  Really. 

So where to go this week?  We decided on Laketown Township, just south of Holland Michigan.  We stopped and got info from the township hall, great maps, we like maps.

Farview Nature Park  87 acres, with a large pond, walking trails, boardwalks, picnic area, very nice.  

Nodding Ladies' Tresses

Round-leaved Sundew (right - those leaves are round)

  

So the trail here at Farview went through some interesting places - wet, wooded, mossy places.  This is a good place for a walk.
Next we headed over to Huyser Farm Park and Nature Preserve.  We picked some blueberries here as we walked through the field of blueberry bushes, yum.  Then over a small sandy creek to some remnants of farm buildings with what we think may be an American Chestnut tree. We could be wrong.

                                                American Chestnut ?

  Pond at Huyser Farm

 

Orange Hawkweed


After Huyser we drove by Gilligan Lake which does have public access and paved parking along the road, and Kelly Lake which has public access limited to foot traffic but we didn't see a good spot to pull off the road.


We also stopped at Wolters Woods 34 acres, a community park with a playground including a merry-go- round, hiking/skiing trails, picnic area.

There are many more parks in this township, Shore Acres, Sanctuary Woods, Laketown Beach, and Saugatuck Dunes State Park.