Posted in Hiking, Northeastern Ohio, Ohio Industrial History, Park review

Deep Lock Quarry Metro Park

Deep Lock Quarry is part of the Summit County Metro Park system. The park has several historical features of interest: a canal lock, a sandstone quarry, and millstones that were created from the quarried sandstone. Hikers at Deep Lock Quarry can take advantage of two trails in the 73-acre park: the Quarry Trail and the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail (henceforth referred to as the "Towpath Trail"). Both the Cuyahoga Trail and the Buckeye Trail overlap the Towpath Trail and continue beyond the Read more ➜
Posted in Hiking, Park Reviews for Neighboring States, West Virginia

West Virginia: Seneca Rocks

Previously our posts have focused entirely on hiking destinations within Ohio, but like a lot of our fellow hikers, we also go hiking in the states that share a border with Ohio. In this post we discuss a trip just beyond Ohio's southeast border to West Virginia. After crossing the Ohio River into West Virginia, we headed toward Seneca Rocks located in the Monongahela National Forest. The site is a rock climber's paradise with a variety of climbing routes available. Not being climbers ourselves, Read more ➜
Posted in Hiking, Park review, Southwestern Ohio

Chaparral Prairie State Nature Preserve

Chaparral Prairie is a 67-acres state nature preserve with a three-quarter mile loop trail. Located in Adams County, it preserves a rare prairie habitat. Prairies are defined by the type of vegetation that grows in them. In general these plants are drought-tolerant, fire-tolerant and shade-intolerant. They originated in America's Great Plains and moved eastward thousands of years ago during a centuries-long drought when this area was warmer than now. However as the climate cooled and normal rain Read more ➜
Posted in Flowers, Hiking

Spring Wildflowers 2015

This is a collection of some of my favorite wildflower photos taken in April and May of this year. If you'd like to see a larger version of any flower, just click on its photo. The above photo was taken at the Wahkeena Nature Preserve. The staff there make it really easy to locate their most picturesque wildflowers. We were greeted by the in-house naturalist, Tom Shisler. He actually gave us a map of the grounds with the locations of the orchids identified by pink marks on the map. Read more ➜
Posted in Hiking

Magee Marsh during the “Biggest Week in American Birding” 2015

Last week we went to Magee Marsh to check out the action at the Biggest Week in American Birding. This was the second time we made an appearance (the first time is described here). This event is set up to celebrate and observe the migration of warblers in their colorful breeding plumage. Many species are on their way north, but their trip is delayed by Lake Erie. Before these small birds attempt to fly over the lake, they stop on Lake Erie's southern shore to fatten up on bugs, so they'll have the Read more ➜
Posted in Bugs, Nature

The Luna Moth: Male and Female

While hiking at Tar Hollow this past weekend, we spotted a Luna moth perched on a burnt tree trunk. After studying its photo I realized that we now had photos of both the male and female Luna moth, so I thought I would share with you how to tell the difference between the two genders, plus provide a little background information on this moth. However when I showed the photo to some other people, they were soon telling me that the moth looked like it was about two feet wide. So before going on, try Read more ➜
Posted in Flowers, Hiking, Northeastern Ohio, Park review

Pine Hill Park: Crall Woods

Crall Woods is a 97-acre woodland that's one of two tracts of land making up Pine Hill Park in Ashland County. It was named as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service in 1974. According to a sign in the park's kiosk, there are three nature trails at Crall Wood with a total length of 2.45 miles. However, we saw two unlisted trails (one under construction and the other complete) that were not listed on the kiosk. All the trails were wide and well-maintained. In a recent comment Read more ➜
Posted in Nature

Foraging Morels

Although I don't have expertise in this area, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) just published a series of videos on foraging for morels that I'd like to share with you. ODNR naturalist, Erin Shaw, hosts four videos about hunting for morels. I've created a playlist of all four in order here. Individuals videos are around a couple minutes long. To watch all four in order will take about 8½ minutes. Links to each individual video in the playlist are also provided at the Read more ➜
Posted in Flowers, Hiking, Northeastern Ohio, Park review

Fowler Woods State Nature Preserve

Fowler Woods is a 187-acre, state nature preserve located in Richland Coundy in northeast Ohio. Originally the preserve featured a handicap-accessible, 1 ¼-mile boardwalk, but in 2014 much of the boardwalk was closed to the public due to safety concerns.  The boardwalk passes through mature forest, buttonbush swamps, and an area that was once farmland, but is now reverting to forest. Sadly the lower, wetland region within this area that is now barred to the public.  The preserve used to be one Read more ➜
Posted in Park visit

The Hocking Hills at Winter’s End

Like a lot of other people, I'm totally ready to leave winter behind at this point. However Bob convinced me to open myself to winter's beauty once more by hiking in the Hocking Hills this past Friday. It was sunny, but cold (around 20° F, -6.7° C), so we had to bundle up. We visited two attractions in the Hocking Hills State Park: Ash Cave and Cedar Falls. Then we hiked the Gorge Trail in the Conkle's Hollow State Nature Preserve. To make things easier for ourselves, we reduced our hiking by parking Read more ➜