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.

Clear Creek Rambles: Lakes, Ruins, Critters, and More

Nov. 5th

On November 5th Joan and I drove down to Clear Creek Metro Park to explore the newly opened extension of the Lake Emily trail, which took us to the ruins of the Benua family house, Green Mansions. (There had not been any publicly open trails on the south side of Clear Creek until this summer.)

Click on the image to enlarge.

Directly across the road from the parking area is the Written Rock, which holds 19th and 20th Century graffiti chiseled into the sandstone.

A closeup.

The Lake Trail first crosses Clear Creek on an old concrete ford/bridge, which is sometimes flooded out.

The path then rises gradually until a final climb to the top of the earthen dam that formed Lake Emily.

Don't try to walk on the ice ...

A sunlit tree at the far end of the dam.

From here Joan and I were walking on trail new to us. At the junction we took the 0.4 mile spur to the ruins of "Green Mansions," built in the 1960s by the Benua family.

Drawing closer.

The sign Joan is reading in the above photo; sorry for the clipped left edge!

The view from inside.

After admiring the location and the Benua family's protection of this land, Joan and I returned to the loop, shuffling and crunching through the fallen leaves. Then Joan spotted ...

a young meadow vole, here in the woods. We halted. It seemed unafraid of us, and continued to search through the leaf litter for something to eat.

After completing the loop, Joan and I drove on to the Barnebey Day Use area, and walked the short Tulip and Lake trail loops.

We received a big surprise when the Lake loop took us down to the level of Lake Ramona. There was a new beaver dam, upstream of the original dam! It looked fresh, and stretched wider than the lower dam.

The old dam has sprouted a carpet of greenery.

"Busy as a beaver" is the saying, and it applies here. Lake Ramona itself was at a low ebb.

Our two walks this day were rewarding and surprised us more than once.

December 2nd

Joan and I returned on December 2nd to hike the Hemlock and Cemetery Ridge trails. We had chosen a day with a frost-free morning. On the way from the parking area to the Hemlock trailhead we checked out the extensive repairs at a bend in Clear Creek. The waters had been eating away the bank, threatening the road and trail.

It is clear that the park has had difficulty with visitors bringing dogs into this nature preserve.

Note one succinct line, "Pets Prohibited," in the original trail sign, right. Then a small stand-alone sign was added, left. That wasn't enough! Now there is an additional large sign, left, shouted: no dogs allowed.

We soon realized that crane-fly orchid leaves seemed to be along every trail, still green above and purple below. The leaves of Putty-root orchids, which bloom in the late spring, were more numerous than before at their usual haunt on the Hemlock trail.

Cemetery Ridge was more interesting than the green tunnel it transforms into when the leaves are out. We could see through to other ridges, and deep into the valleys. Also, the dead leaves made a fascinating but easy to overlook layered patchwork of shapes and colors. This tiny plant reached up through the ground litter. Can anybody identify it? If so, leave a comment!

Despite a few rain sprinkles, our four hours on the trail in December were well worthwhile.

Clear Creek Metro Park In Winter

Although Joan and I sought out new hiking locations in 2020, or ones we've visited rarely, Clear Creek Metro Park is always on the menu, particularly if we haven't been there for a few months. Recently we have visited it twice, after winter's onset.

On our first trip, December 23rd, we began at the Creekside Meadows parking area. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

From there Joan and I took the riverside walk that leads to the Cemetery Ridge trailhead. The year's prairie growth was, of course, completely brown. Half of the trail was still in shade, so we were in time to see some marvelous ice crystals on the plants. On sticks,

on emptied seed pods,

and on tired, dangling stems.

A cluster of wrens was enjoying the sunny portion.

Joan and I prefer to take the Cemetery Ridge trail only when the trees are winter-bare, for otherwise it's like walking through a green tunnel with an occasional gas pipeline right-of-way at the eastern end. It starts with switchbacks climbing to the ridgeline, and then heads west.

What's this? Netting on a tripod?

It's protecting a rare plant species against vegetarian predators.

Further on we reached the old barn,

which, when the leaves are out, you can miss when heading west-to-east, as we have done before. This historic barn

makes me wonder, how could it be possible to successfully farm up here on the ridge? The bottom lands on the Hocking River would have been much richer, but also more expensive. You can circumambulate the barn and peek into the interior.

Just outside, some moss-drenched log stumps caught my eye.

Moving on, Joan and I spotted a red-eyed vireo nest. Now that we can recognize them and the leaves are gone, we're spotting them more often.

When we reached the end of the Cemetery Ridge trail Joan and I paused at the bench there for a snack, and then made a loop on the Fern trail. Joan spotted this sap or resin glistening like a gem on the side of a tree as we walked the section of Fern that's on a meadow's edge.

While climbing back up Fern to the intersection with the Hemlock trail we met a group of volunteers inspecting hemlocks for the woolly adelgid, an insect pest not native to eastern North America that hijacks sap and, over a few years, kills the tree. Early detection is vital to have any chance of saving the hemlocks, beloved by hermit thrushes, which have breeding populations in only two isolated locations in Ohio, one of which is here at Clear Creek.

We took the Hemlock trail, finding some putty-root orchid leaves in a spot where we've occasionally seen them in other years. Joan showed them to another passing hiker who had never seen them before.

From the end of Hemlock we walked back to the car, largely on the creekside.

On an even frostier January 13th (it warmed up as the day wore on) Joan and I explored some of the western end of Clear Creek, parking at the Valley View Picnic Area.

We began by hiking downhill to the edge of the man-made Lake Ramona, where we had a huge surprise. Earlier in the year we'd spotted some beaver activity that didn't appear to have come to fruition.

But now, several yards further upstream, a completed dam stretched across the entire low-lying area. The arc of the earlier effort is at far left.

A closer look ...

Zooming in on the highest population of sticks ...

The beavers have been busy!

The trail rises gradually at first as it heads away from the lake, and the patterns of ice, debris, and reflections were striking.

The Lake trail ends back up on the top of the ridge, where we turned left and tromped through a goodly portion of the Chestnut Ridge trail before turning around. As we grew close to the parking area we turned onto the Tulip trail loop, a rough parallel to the Lake trail, and directly across from it, on the other face of the ridge. Along this section we were treated to a group of foraging golden-crowned kinglets, who are small, hyperactive birds. They were impossible to capture on camera but we persevered with our binos and managed some good looks.

This trail also took us to what we call the "living room," a grove of hemlock trees and excellent sitting logs. In season the hemlocks often attract hermit thrushes, absent in winter. Here is a photo taken back on June 15th as we approached the living room.

After snacking again at the living room Joan and I continued on the Tulip trail, and reached the point where a spur trail led to the E. E. Good prairie, which we hadn't visited in a long time -- it's out in the open and too hot in the summer for us. This time we took the spur. The trail loops around the prairie, and we were treated to two pairs of bluebirds checking out a nest box. In this photo, taken from some distance, two females are at the box simultaneously. Click on the image to enlarge.

In this one, there's a male hanging around in the upper left as the womenfolk continue their inspection.

It's too early for serious nesting, but these bluebirds were certainly checking out that box.

After a short climb to the parking area our day was complete. If you dress warmly and keep your eyes open, there are still sights to see in the winter landscape.