Morton Arboretum

Monday, 8 April 2019

While we were visiting family in Naperville, Illinois, we made a springtime visit to the Morton Arboretum. The weather was glorious and spring was in the air.

Visually, it was still winter: no snow, but no green or leaves either, ...

... but hepatica is a sure sign of more spring wildflowers to come.

There were far more wetlands than I had remembered. Partly it's because it's spring and still wet. Partly it's because there's no screening vegetation around the marshy areas. Spring peepers (frogs) were out in force, and we saw two snakes swimming in the ponds.

Mallards were plentiful.

And fat squirrels were everywhere. Most of the squirrels were the rusty-colored fox squirrel.

Trolls

The trolls are still at the arb. They came through the winter with only a bit of wear. So if you didn't get to the arb last year, you still have a chance to see them. They will be removed only when they deteriorate to the point that they are unsafe.

Since we saw all six trolls and their hideout last year, we didn't make an effort to see them all this time.

Rocky was still throwing rocks at cars in the main parking lot.

Alexa is still trying to lure unsuspecting prey to her trap.

And Ema still waits by her tree.

A closer look at Ema's face shows that the trolls weathered a Chicago winter very well.

We'll certainly return to the arb this summer when the Gateway to Tree Science exhibit will be open (it's nearly complete now), and "Nature Connects: Art with LEGO Bricks by Sean Kenney" will be on display.

Hocking Hills Region

Thursday, 4 April 2019

Hocking Hills is a sprawling network of state lands in southeastern Ohio that includes Hocking Hills State Park and Hocking State Forest. We visited last week. Despite the mid-week date, the park was filled with families enjoying a warm sunny early-April day.

The Upper Falls are the start of a network of trails that connect Old Man's Cave, Whispering Cave, Cedar Falls, and Ash Cave. On Wednesday, Lon hiked about 10 miles in this area while I was at a conference in Athens, Ohio. On Thursday, we returned to do a smaller subset of the trails.

The stream has cut a gorge through sandstone and the gorge trail crosses the creek many times.

Old Man's Cave (the overhang at the left of the photo) is near the beginning of the gorge. Most of the "caves" are really natural large, deep overhangs cut into the soft sandstone. They are very similar to the caves used by the cliff-dwellers in Mesa Verde (Colorado) or Buddhists in Sri Lanka. This particular cave takes its name from a recluse who lived here for many years at the end of the 18th century.

A stone bridge, several stair cases, and a tunnel provide access to Old Man's Cave.

The gorge between Old Man's Cave and Lower Falls. This particular view is called the "Sphinx Head".

Gorge and stairs leading to Lower Falls.

Lower Falls

Tree roots take advantage of every crevice they can find, ...

... but sometimes they're still not enough to anchor a tree in place.

Sunlight reflected off the creek illuminated the multicolored sandstone of the gorge walls.

Whispering Falls is at the western end of the Old Man's Cave trail.

Ash Cave is a truly immense rock shelter with a paved trail from the parking lot for accessibility. You can hike here from Old Man's Cave, but it's about 5 miles each way. It's much easier to drive to the parking lot and take a short hike (1/4 mile).

Ash Cave from the other side.

There's plenty more that we didn't see, so a return visit may be in order. It's really not very far off our usual route between Virginia and Chicago.

Our introduction to Hocking Hills came from Atlas Obscura. There's always something interesting near you to be found there.