Great Seal State Park in Spring #2

On April 20th Joan and I visited Great Seal State Park again, two weeks after our first springtime visit. We parked at a small lot on the west side, across from the Grouse Rock trail.

P for Parking near the red trail.

We scooted across the road and took a short, steep connector to Grouse Rock and headed uphill towards intersection I. Early on we passed through a power-line cut.

Almost immediately we started seeing jack-in-the-pulpit, some vegetative (just leaves) and some blooming.

This one is bashful and facing away.

And bloodroot leaves.

Here's a ridgetop view taken about 50 minutes in.

Phlox comes in many shades.

A closeup.

Joan and I hiked north on the Shawnee Ridge trail, then at intersection H took the Sand Hill trail to G, the top of the hill, where we found gorgeous rock formations.

And unusual ones.

In this photo Joan leads the way on a sharp downhill from G to F and D.

It was altitude loss enough for us to encounter blooming redbuds,

and the sunny day had warmed enough for us to shed our jackets. Birds sang, but we were many times frustrated in trying to spot them. Another fifty minutes along, after turning right at intersection C, we were on the ridgetop trail to Bald Hill, heading south again.

A wood sorrel that has not yet faded.

A few minutes later, a trillium.

Nature, in her exuberance, throws off lots of oddities, such as this tree with a branch sprouting out of a burl.

When Joan and I reached intersection I, we turned south, to repeat the Rock Garden and Annie's Trail loops, but in the opposite direction to the previous visit. We began with the Rock Garden loop.

The squirrel corn, only a green carpet before, had erupted in blooms.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Solo rocks appeared on the loop. Often the path would split, so bicyclists could hurl themselves over lithic obstacles while hikers trod on.

A butterfly on garlic mustard along the way.

The tip of the loop sports the largest feature. There are jumps here with several feet of drop; flinging yourself off the far edge is a doozy.

Back at the intersection, we began Annie's Trail.

A few minutes on Joan spotted a firepink. It was well off-trail so I used the camera zoom.

Annie's took us to intersection S, where we headed west towards J. Along the way we encountered this dwarf larkspur specimen.

From J, close to the road, we continued on the Grouse Rock trail, to reach our parking area. And we soon encountered a highlight of the trip, a cooperatively posing hermit thrush.

This most melodious of birds nests only in few scattered pockets of Ohio; most continue north in their migration. Just passing through, our friend here did not sing, but we adored his features, from the eye-ring to the speckled breast and the cinnamon tail. 

We continued on towards the parking connector trail, dipping in and out of ravines. In one such the conditions were ripe for a few celandine poppies.

Joan and I added up the mileages on today's route and arrived at 7½ miles, an accomplishment for our stop-and-inspect hiking style.

Great Seal State Park in Spring #1

On April 5th Joan and I revisited parts of Great Seal State Park, which we explored for the first time the previous autumn. We parked in the southern section, near trail intersection V.

We set out towards M, beginning with a bridge crossing.

Soon there were clusters of blooming white trout lilies.

And a bloodroot beginning to unfold.

Joan and I turned left at intersection M, crossed the road, and hiked deeper into the woods.

What's that noise? A yellow-bellied sapsucker!

We gained altitude hiking clockwise around the green loop (Rocky Knob trail) at the right of the map. After fifty more minutes we came across an old stone foundation, a remnant of early settlement.

This mayapple has spread its wings wide, but no blossom yet.

The trail gradually descended as it looped around and headed south again. Here's a view into the watershed below.

Joan and I retraced the Bonus Hill connector, and passed through intersections K and S to reach Annie's Trail. This loop steadily rose,

The white spots above are happy spring beauties.

and we passed an offering of hyacinth, a non-native plant, as we neared Annie's Trail.

We reached intersection T,

Click on the image to enlarge, and spot the daffodils

and then added the Rock Garden loop to today's bag. Carpets of squirrel corn adorned the slope, happy with the soils on the ridge top.

The next post will have photos of the Rock Garden.

Joan and I were astonished at the trash we collected today, on the trails or beside them. Our small plastic bags were overwhelmed, so we hauled large kitchen bags out of our daypacks, held in reserve for sitting on damp soils. We hauled out five and a half brown beer bottles, four or five soda and beer cans, a couple of water bottles, five spent shotgun shells, and assorted loose trash such as candy bar wrappers and hair scrunchies. During this hike we met a fellow who had been collecting bags of roadside trash, an even bigger chore.

I repeat: if you can carry it in, you can d**n well carry it out.