Thanksgiving at Cuyahoga National Park

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On Thanksgiving Day I found myself in the vicinity of Cleveland with a couple of hours to spare on my way to Pittsburgh for a family dinner. This was no coincidence. I have long wanted to explore Cuyahoga National Park, which is shoehorned into the densely populated region between Cleveland and Akron, OH. Talk about urban wilderness.

Ironically, since I-80 bisects the park, I have driven through it innumerable times on my way to and from the east coast. Until now, however, I have not taken the time to get off the interstate to see it. In other words, I have been as guilty as anyone of seeing the destination as more important than the journey. It was a great pleasure, even in this largely colorless season, to wander up and down the Cuyahoga River and get a taste for the lovely landscape.

Wikipedia has an entry for the term “urban wilderness.” However, the description of the “key traits” that constitute such a place could also describe any other kind of wilderness. It leans towards things like biodiversity, soil quality and an “unstructured aesthetic.” All important to the wilderness half of the equation, certainly. No mention, though, of the proximity or intrusion of a built environment.

As you can see from my photo essay, the built environment is a major component of the Cuyahoga National Park experience—as I see it.

In fact, one of the highlights of my visit was walking across the Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge, which—as the name accurately suggests—provides panoramic and breathtaking views of the Cuyahoga Valley in both directions. It does, that is, if you bother to get out of the car. Unfortunately, that is not encouraged. I had to park some distance away and walk along the road to get to it. Although the bridge itself had adequate shoulders, there were no trails or sidewalks approaching it from either direction.

I learned that the reason for this curious omission was probably deliberate. After only a few minutes of peering over the edge with my camera, a police car pulled up next to me. The cop asked me if I was “just taking pictures.” I smiled and said yes, but must have given him a quizzical expression. He informed me that this bridge was favored by those with suicidal tendencies. I assured him that it hadn’t occurred to me and he drove off.

I had already been thankful for the beautiful day and the remarkable park set aside amidst such surroundings, but Thanksgiving suddenly took on another and more profound level of meaning.

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Brandywine Falls, a major attraction

Brandywine Falls overlook

I-271 overpass

Chasing autumn in Milwaukee area parks

Noyes Park, Milwaukee

For many people, myself included, this is the best time of the year. But let’s face it. Autumn 2017 in Milwaukee has been disappointing. Blame climate change or natural variability but it was unusually mild early in the season. While that’s hard to complain about as the prospect of another Wisconsin winter nears, it seems to have dulled the colors. Many tree species, oaks in particular, seem to have gone directly from green to brown. Others have remained green far longer than normal. Some, like the maples, were finally turning as the calendar went from October to November.

Vernon Wildlife Area, Waukesha County

I finally found a few brilliant sparks amid the embers of the season but it was more challenging than last year. Here is a selection of five area parks that I visited recently. Two of them—Holy Hill and Greenfield Park—are old favorites, worth revisiting often. The other three were new to me: Glacier Hills in Washington County, Vernon Wildlife Area in Waukesha County, and Noyes in Milwaukee. If you act quickly, you too may still be able to capture a little of the fading glory of autumn.

This story was published in my column at Milwaukee Magazine. Click here to read further.

Here is just one of the photos from each of the five parks included in the story:

Glacier Hills County Park

Ice Age Trail at Holy Hill

Vernon Wildlife Area 

Greenfield Park

Noyes Park

 

 

 To see the rest, click here.

Quarry Lake ramble: Photographs and poetry

--> On the first day of December--before the snow started falling--I went to Quarry Lake Park in Racine. Actually, I went to the Wustum Museum of Art in Racine to pick up work that had been in their exhibit, Wisconsin Photography 2016. I've been to the Wustum many times over the years and since it is located next to Quarry Lake Park I have driven past said park just as often--twice as often if you count to and fro! Nearly every time I've wondered about the park and thought that one day I ought to stop. This time I did. 
I shot a series of photos, all with my iPhone. (I had brought my camera along but left it in the car, erroneously anticipating few opportunities to use it, the day being gloomy and with a light drizzle that continually threatened to turn heavier.) I enjoyed the walk far more than expected. 

Adjacent to a golf course, the 40-acre park boasts a “spring-fed lake” in the former quarry, along with a beach, pavilion/bathhouse, dog park, picnic tables, and a fishing pier. The Racine County Parks website doesn’t mention the Root River, which also runs through the park and which was of more interest to me when I decided to stop to explore. 

A narrow, wall-like ridge of un-quarried stone separates the lake and the river. The authorities had erected a chain link fence to prevent people from walking up the ridge, which is essentially a two-sided cliff. This was primarily to discourage cliff jumping into the lake, an illicit activity that had unfortunate consequences last June. However, the appeal seems insatiable. The fence has been violated, making it easy to step through.

After I finished exploring and photographing the park I found in the experience further inspiration. Although I hadn't written any haiku for over a year I ended up with a series of them. The poems are not meant to be read as captions for the photos. They are a complimentary expression of my encounter with Quarry Lake Park.

heavy overcast

the surface of the water

the color of stone

in three rows

twelve vacant tables

cemented in place

visible

through chain link fence

a well-trodden path

reeling

the fisherman draws a line 

in the scum

separating

quarry lake from river 

two-sided cliff

an icy gust

on the cliff top 

bare footprints

standing on uncut rock

surrounded 

by the crowns of trees

I plod along

snarl of thorny underbrush

roar of ascending airplane 

 

on the opposite bank

through leafless trees

house lights

at the water’s edge

a young couple 

posing for selfies

quarry lake

a million grains of sand 

trucked in for the beach

December afternoon

the darkening sky

drizzles  

 

A magnificent autumn in Milwaukee’s parks

This story first appeared in my column at Milwaukee Magazine on Nov. 16, 2016.

Oak Creek Parkway, South Milwaukee

I’d come specifically to see the autumn colors and was not disappointed, but it was when I saw the fox that I really felt like I’d been transported to somewhere utterly wild.

It didn’t happen right away. I’d been hiking for a good part of the afternoon. I had made my way past a large lake fringed with cattails. Tangled thickets of buckthorn walled the trail and loomed overhead. Beyond that I clambered through an upland forest resplendent with the golden hues of maple leaves. At the crest of a wooded hill a fort had been erected from fallen timbers propped up like a tepee. The trail circled around a marsh. Piles of cleared buckthorn made it possible to see out over tawny reeds to distant woodlands.

Grobschmidt Park, Franklin

The trail turned away from the marsh and led up another hill towards a meadow. That was when I saw it—sauntering up the trail away from me. At first I thought it must be a coyote, because of its size. It stopped abruptly and turned to stare. We locked eyes. The shape of its body, full and healthy-looking, and the telltale color were convincing. It was the largest red fox I’d ever encountered. And there was nothing tame in those suspicious eyes.

It bolted into the tall meadow grass before I could get a bead on it with my camera. But the image of the fox staring me down remained, a mental reminder that I am blessed to live in a landscape shared with such wild creatures. Blessed, in other words, to live in Milwaukee County. Because this wasn’t somewhere in northern Wisconsin but Grobschmidt Park, which is wedged between Greendale and Franklin, just minutes from downtown Milwaukee.

Grobschmidt Park, Franklin

It is autumn, a magical time of year. I am hardly the first to laud its appeal, of course. People often travel great distances to see the changing season in places like New England or Colorado. Here in Milwaukee a popular pastime is to leave town and head up north to view the colors in one of Wisconsin’s many beautiful parks and forests. I must quickly confess that I did just that in the first week of October.

Insterstate Falls, Wisconsin-Michigan border

Although I knew my ultimate goal would be to explore the possibilities right here in the metro area, I had been invited on a scenic tour of Iron County. Trees near home were only beginning to turn. It seemed like a great opportunity to jump-start an autumn adventure. Iron County lies on the shores of Lake Superior, abutting Michigan’s upper peninsula. Its vast hardwood forests are threaded with wild rivers and breathtaking waterfalls. We couldn’t have planned better conditions. The weather was mild and colors peaking. I felt privileged to be able to enjoy such bounty.

Appetite whetted, I returned with a mission: visit as many local parks as I could squeeze into one month and document autumn in Milwaukee. Because there are many who don’t have the means or opportunity to leave town as I had and because I’ve long advocated for what I’ve termed “urban wilderness” experiences, I decided that it was time for me to demonstrate my fundamental belief: You do not have to go up north to enjoy autumn—or indeed to enjoy nature at any time of year. In fact, you do not even have to leave the city.

Menomonee River Parkway, Milwaukee

I began, somewhat inauspiciously, in the northwest corner of Milwaukee County. My first stop was along the Menomonee River Parkway just south of Mill Road that I knew to have wide views of unkempt marshland. But when I got there it appeared completely barren. Most of the trees were already stripped of leaves. Seeing mostly shades of brown and grey, I wondered with momentary panic, if I had missed autumn while I was away.

Kohl Park Community Garden, Milwaukee

Continuing north to the county line, I was calmed to find that, far from missing autumn, most of the foliage in Kohl Park remained a luxuriant green. In the sprawling community gardens there the most colorful accents were cultivated flowers. Across the line at the Mequon Nature Preserve I finally found a woodland with colors near peak. All on my first day out. This Goldilocks effect would prove one of my biggest challenges all month as I traveled around the county trying to discover which of the parks were just right on any given day.

Grant Park, South Milwaukee

My joy of discovery as well as persistence eventually took me to every corner of the county and occasionally beyond. I walked beaches and lakefront bluffs from Doctors Park in Fox Point to Bender in Oak Creek. I marveled at the wide diversity of habitats in Franklin, from rare oak savanna to deep hardwood forest to broad expanses of prairie and marsh.

Wilson Park, Milwaukee

There are plenty of beautiful places right in the heart of the city, too. From Havenwoods State Forest and McGovern Park on the north side, Kosciuszko and Wilson on the south side, Greenfield and Hoyt Parks on the west side to Three Bridges Park and the Hank Aaron State Trail in the Menomonee Valley. In fact, nearly nine out of ten people who live in the city are within a ten-minute walk of a park, an invaluable statistic that is coveted by other urban regions and one that goes far towards improving our quality of life. ¹

Hoyt Park, Wauwatosa

In my quest to visit a maximum number of parks I sometimes paused only briefly to grab a few photographs. But some, like Grobschmidt, Grant and Seminary Woods, are either so large or majestic that I carved out entire mornings or long, languid afternoons in order to soak up the sunshine and bask in the glow under a golden forest canopy. It is these longer excursions that have the power to rejuvenate, that salve the anxious soul.

Seminary Woods, St. Francis

It is November now. The trees are largely bare. With my tally of parks approaching 60, I consider my month of autumn exploration to have been successful beyond even my high expectations. And yet I know that there are more natural wonders awaiting future adventures. With over 150 named parks and 15,000 acres, ² the Milwaukee County Park system alone would take years to thoroughly explore. Add to that the state and municipal parks and I would be at a loss to enumerate them, let alone attempt to visit them all. The ability to venture just slighter farther afield can take you to the Kettle Moraine State Parks, the Ice Age Trail, and more.

Menomonee River Parkway, Wauwatosa

I went out again yesterday, back to one of my regular haunts along the Menomonee River Parkway, full circle. Only a few hardy ash trees retained brilliant yellow leaves. The late-autumn sun, already nearing the horizon in mid-afternoon, lit up the understory, where even hardier, non-native buckthorn remains green under stripped limbs and branches reaching skyward. Along parkways on both sides of the river there were houses now visible in places where a week ago they were hidden. But I knew my way and chose paths that led not simply to the deepest parts of the forest but into the wild place in my heart that is nurtured there.

Along the way I scared up a noisy flock of mallards that, in defiance to instinct, likely will winter over here. A great blue heron also squawked its disapproval of me as it disappeared upriver. Unlike the ducks, the heron will head south soon. The unseasonably warm fall has kept it here longer than usual. And me? I will winter over, too, of course. And continue to visit the parks, feeling blessed to live in Milwaukee.

Oak Leaf Trail, Bay View Park, St. Francis

Don't miss my Flickr albums of the Penokee Hills and Vicinity (Iron County) and Autumn in Milwaukee 2016 .

Great blue heron, Lincoln Park, Glendale

This is the seventh and penultimate in a series of posts about autumn in Milwaukee. This post began with a story about Grobschmidt Park. Each of the other posts includes additional stories from one or more parks.

Here are links to the others:

Monarch butterflies on the Mke County Grounds

Mke River Greenway: Riverside and Gordon Parks

Havenwoods State Forest

Greenfield Park

Grant and McGovern

Cudahy Nature Preserve and Falk Park

Kletzsch Park, Glendale

Notes:

1. Trust for Public Land: http://parkscore.tpl.org/city.php?city=Milwaukee

2. Milwaukee County Parks Department: http://county.milwaukee.gov/Parks

Again, there are many more photos in my Flickr albums of the Penokee Hills and Vicinity (Iron County) and Autumn in Milwaukee 2016 .