Eastmanville Farm

December 5 2011
Eastmanville Farm (Ottawa County Park) located at 7975 Leonard Street in Polkton Township on the Grand River.  This 229 acre property was acquired by Ottawa County in the early 1800s and established as a “poor farm” to provide housing and services for indigent residents. This operation, called Community Haven, survived until the late 1990s.

This park, now called Eastmanville Farm, currently offers 3.5 miles of equestrian and hiking trails and a parking lot.

Lots of maps along the trail.

 We even found a wildflower blooming in December!

 Trail on the northwest corner of the property.

The park property is also south of Leonard Street so we checked that section out.  There are no trails here, this is were you can get to the Grand River.  There is also a creek, on the west side, that flows into the Grand.

Is this a deer skull?

After Eastmanville Farm we stopped off at Millpoint Park,  located at the end of School Street in the Village of Spring Lake, to see the new boardwalk.  Well, it isn't quite done and it wasn't the best day to visit.

Kind of a cold gray day, still fun to explore.

Rogue River State Game Area

2011 06 14  The northwest section of Kent County, just in Tyrone Township, on 18 Mile Road 1\4 mile west of Division Avenue is a parking area for the Rogue River State Game Area.  On Bing maps we could see a nice little pond-like area to explore.  I was hoping to find some rare orchid hidden away but...

 I have been reading this book "Our wild orchids; trails and portraits" by Frank Morris and Edward A. Eames published 1929.  I borrowed it free through MelCat - Michigan eLibrary (http://www.mel.org/)  it came all the way from  Calumet Michigan.  It is an interesting book about people traveling to find wild orchids, they had more time, money, and energy than we do.  I've also enjoyed "Orchids of the western Great Lakes region" by Frederick W. Case, Jr. many times.

We didn't find any orchids here but it was a fun place to explore and we managed to get all the way around this pond but not too close since it was choked in with shrubs.  Here are a few things we did see.

               Spotted Loosestrife

 Cheeses or Common Mallow (Malva neglecta)

          a weed but a pretty one.

                              Pond area

Daisy  Fleabane

  Creepy swampy place, if there were wild orchids here they stayed hidden.

             I met this cute little guy

                             Ninebark

                  Showy Goat's Beard

We made a few more stops along Red Pine Drive heading north then east on 20 mile road to Spring Lake.  We were able to drive right to the lake on a two-track to a gravel surface boat launch.

            Spring Lake in Kent County
           There were tadpoles here.

We found a late blooming Wild Columbine.  There was much more Ninebark here and For-Get-Me-Nots.

We walked through a Pine forest and found Common Shinleaf not quite blooming, saw this mushroom.
Then back on the road for home.  Nice adventure.