Sightings at Clear Creek, Rhododendron Cove, Wahkeena, and Christmas Rocks

Between June 10th and 23rd, 2025, Joan and I visited four different parks and preserves with the goal of 1) checking them out, and 2) building up our hiking stamina!

 

On our first visit, Clear Creek Metro Park, we focused mainly on the Fern and Hemlock trails. (Click on any image to enlarge.)

A view of the Hemlock Trail, before it starts its big climb.

Various mushrooms and fungi ...

Click on any image to enlarge.

Best of all, a grey rat snake, holding still and hoping it looked like a stick.

Not far away, at the Rhododendron Cove State Nature Preserve, there were some early rhododendron blooms, but just a few on our June 12th visit. Here's a good one:

Further along, we saw two eastern American toads, of distinct sizes and coloration.

This one was quite young!

After descending from Rhododendron Cove, Joan and I drove to the nearby Wahkeena Nature Preserve (Fairfield County Parks). We enjoyed the one-mile loop walk, the ponds, and the exhibits in the visitor center; photographically, I caught this image of a blue dasher, one of the best photos I've taken recently.

While chatting with a staff member outside the visitor center, we caught a brief glimpse of what we believe was a river otter. Wahkeena isn't far from the Hocking River, so it's plausible. There was a green dragon outside the visitor center, a plant Joan had been hoping to see for years.

 

On the 16th, we returned to Clear Creek, but started at the far western side. The day was hot and humid, but at least the percentage chance of rain was low. The next photo is another American toad.

The same patch hosted a much smaller toad.

Here's a surprise an hour later on -- fire pinks!

A panoramic shot representative of one of the less steep parts of the Chestnut Ridge trail.

Five minutes later, a green adder's-mouth orchid! Too bad the focus was on the single leaf rather than the bloom ...

There are sometimes water trickles, rivulets, or minor creeks tucked into folds along the trail. Today we noticed one hosting many small "froglets,"

and a bigger sibling.

At the east end of the trail, Joan and I encountered a butterfly study group led by two Metro Park staff. Along that path there was a green-fringed orchid.

We continued to the intersection of the Fern and Hemlock trails and, with the heat and humidity sapping our strength, decided it was time to retrace our steps back ~3 miles to our starting point. About an hour into our return we noticed a blooming southern catalpa -- it's hard to miss --

native to the deep south of the United States, but now widely planted and naturalized well beyond its original range.

 

On June 20th, Joan and I visited Christmas Rocks State Nature Preserve. It was a hot and muggy day -- but according to the forecasts, the best day for at least a week!

To make this a more substantial hike, Joan and I did the loops in both directions, clockwise and counterclockwise. This had the salutary side-effect that plants and animals that weren't visible in one direction were detected on the other loop. And what did we see early on, but yet another American toad! Perhaps they enjoy the warm, humid air.

The view at the crest of the orange loop, called Jacob's Ladder, is minimized by greenery in summer,

but there are some landmarks to see with binoculars, and we watched a kettle of vultures begin to coalesce in the rising columns of air.

Next, a token on the side of the trail, which someone had obviously deliberately placed.

Then, another blue darter damselfly!

This midland painted turtle looks like it has algae on its shell, doesn't it? We found it well up the hillside.

Here's a view of a sandstone formation on the blue loop.

The "panorama" mode on my camera created some sun streaks.

And we encountered another damselfly, a female ebony jewelwing.

Then, our friend the rattlesnake plantain. Joan and I saw quite a few here.

Finally, although I don't have a photo, on our clockwise trek on the blue loop we encountered a kentucky warbler, who must have read a guidebook based on its behavior. Bug in mouth, it chittered at us from a bush adjacent to the trail, distracting us from the actual location of its nest.

 

It's been a great treat/workout exploring nearby Ohio Parks and Nature Preserves. Now if only the heat would let up.

Return to Christmas Rocks

On March 2nd Joan and I took advantage of a rare pleasant winter day -- sunny but not too cold -- to revisit Christmas Rocks State Nature Preserve, about the same time as last year (March 10th). We weren't looking for a strenuous hike, but there was still plenty to see.

 

The first stretch from the parking lot is a gravel road, a driveway to an inholding in the Preserve.

The pale green is the inholding.

Our first fallen tree, of which we saw many, was on that road before the inhold property and house. How would you like to head out in the morning and see a tree this thick across your drive?

Looking back to the parking.

We were hopeful that we would see some skunk cabbage, a thermogenic plant, one that can generate heat and emerge from frozen or snow-covered ground. At first there weren't any, but then Joan and I came across some good patches.

Most of them haven't opened yet, but I have a good picture from last year's visit here.

Last March we had also heard and seen wood frogs courting and mating in the transient pools here, but this chilly morning there was no such activity.

 

There's an entrance sign where the road switches from wide and graveled to a narrow, unmaintained surface, busy reverting from an old farm road to a hiking path.

Joan and I prefer to take the orange loop clockwise, tackling the steepest part in the preserve going uphill rather than down. With the leaves off the trees, we could see the bluff as we approached the intersection.

Photo taken just after starting the loop. Not steep yet.

No greenery had yet emerged along the trail. This photo takes a closer look at the southwest flank of the bluff known as Jacob's Ladder, before the now-narrow trail takes a sharp jog to the right. We were glad for our hiking poles on this stretch.

The view from the top, here at the beginnings of the Appalachian region.

After a brief stretch on top the path heads downhill, back to the old road. Joan and I chose to continue on the road, to take the blue loop counter-clockwise. We encountered our second hiker of the day at the spot where it crossed Arney Run. She was sitting on a flat rock on the edge of the stream, talking to someone on her phone. We did not interrupt, and continued; she never knew we had been there.

 

The blue loop traverses several ecological zones. Soon after the climb up the side valley began, we entered an extensive stand of pines and other evergreens. Browned needles covered the forest floor. As the valley narrowed, it reverted to an open woodland, and as we advanced, the bowl-shaped end of the valley appeared.

As you can see on the map, the trail rises gradually as it follows the ridge to the right, and then surfaces at the ridgeline as it turns back. Along the way, we spotted this tree, broken by a windstorm, with "feathers" sticking out from the top.

At our favorite sitting log, a dozen yards back in the woods, we snacked and had a pit stop. On the north side of the ridge, some well-shaded ice still lingered.

Nature intertwined roots, rocks, and moss with sporophyte bodies at this spot on the descent.

Back on the road, traversing the orange section we hadn't yet trod, another tree had recently fallen across the road.

On closer inspection, we were intrigued by the flies attracted to the oozing sap from this fresh fall.

Nearby, this plant had been marked as important -- for some reason unknown to us.

By this time, one-thirty-ish, the bright sun had raised the temperature to near 60°F, and the wood frogs had come out! The pools were lower than last year, and the vegetation hampered my photography, but with binoculars we could spot a few as well as hear them. What a delight!

This is a clever if fraught strategy on the part of the frogs. Laying their eggs in an ephemeral pool -- one which will dry out later in the year -- means there are no fish present to predate on the eggs. However, if the pool dries out too early ... In any case, once the eggs are laid the frogs return to their woodland habitat. Child care is not an issue.

We'll be sure to return later in the spring for flower spotting, which was gorgeous last year.

Pink Lady Slippers at Christmas Rocks!

Joan and I knew that pink lady slippers could be found, in season, at Christmas Rocks State Nature Preserve. We made a point of visiting twice, on April 26th and May 13th.

April 26th.

The reserve has two loops, orange and blue.

The climb out of the creek valley from point C is steep, but we had seen lady slippers on that section before. Today we found one ...

It looks greenish, but will mature into another color. A true yellow lady slipper is rare, and grows much taller.

Four minutes later we found another, gorgeously veined and pink.

Then we reached the overlook.

The trees had begun to leaf out, but this early in the season plenty of light still came through.

Ten minutes beyond the overlook there was a cluster, whose buds were just beginning to split.

We also noted jack-in-the-pulpit, some still emerging from sheaths.

All in all, and interesting visit, but the next one ...

May 13th.

A bit over two weeks later, we were back.

It was clear even at the entrance that the preserve was much greener.

One of first greetings was from a scarlet tanager, always a treat.

And then a red-eyed vireo. The leaves add a touch of chlorophyll to the golden sunlight, shifting many colors.

The loops are foot trails, but the way that follows the creek is an old road.

Soft spots harbored critter tracks.

A flowering Solomon's plume.

Forty minutes after passing the preserve entrance, our first lady slipper appeared, a solo specimen.

Let's step off the trail -- just a bit -- and view it face-on.

Up at the viewpoint, on the orange loop. The vista is much greener now.

Twenty minutes on, the thrills began. Lots of lady slippers. Sometimes two stalks,

or four,

or five.

It got to the point where I did not take a photo of every doggone lady-slipper!

 The moss was happy and had thrust out fruiting bodies.

And there's a maple sprout on the left.

Another lady slipper, up close. Click on the image to enlarge.

When a mayapple has two umbrellas,

one of them is hosting a flower that will become the fruit.

Near the end of the orange loop, a footbridge and fallen trees, not an uncommon sight.

Violets.

And finally, the herb sweet cicily.

This second expedition was full of springtime exuberance, some now past its time, some in full bloom, and some still thinking about it.

After each visit to Christmas Rocks, Joan and I extended the day by visiting another, smaller location. These two were the Shallenberger State Nature Preserve and the Wahkeena Nature Preserve. I'll combine them in the next post.