Photo essay: New Munster Wildlife Area and KD Park in Kenosha County

New Munster is in western Kenosha County, off Highway 50. The drive there took nearly an hour. Gambling with dueling forecasts, one of which showed overcast skies and the other suggesting partly cloudy, I left in the dark and arrived shortly before dawn. The gamble paid dividends when the clouds parted just before the sun rose. Having seen a lake on Google maps in a Kenosha County park across the road from New Munster State Wildlife Area, I went there first. I caught this lovely sunrise and had almost an hour of beautiful light before another cloud bank rolled over.

KD Park is being developed by Kenosha County into what they plan (according to the rather grand sign at the entrance) to call a Sustainable Living Education Park. Sounds interesting. So far it's a looping paved driveway with several small parking lots in a broad grassy clearing that slopes down to the lake.

234-acre KD Park was developed on a former gravel quarry. Its primary feature is the 39-acre lake, which provides opportunities for fishing and non-motorized boating. According to the park website, there are over 4 miles of trails maintained for hiking and cross-country skiing.

 

When the sun died I crossed the road and parked in the tiny dirt lot at the entrance to the New Munster State Wildlife Area. I'd never heard of it before. Since my recent tour of edible plants at Theresa Marsh I've been on an email list for DNR-sponsored hikes and this one was the next on the schedule. This hike was billed as a birding tour. I always love learning about birds. However, the gloomy overcast sky that had settled in motivated me to use a tripod for my photos and I found myself mostly hanging back peering through the tripod-mounted camera while the birders ranged ahead peering through their binoculars at the cedar waxwings, warblers and whatever else I missed.

The birds were mostly small and high in the canopy, so I focused in on other things.

 The New Munster Wildlife area, established in 1947, encompasses 1226 acres. The DNR website describes it as "predominately oak woodland, lowland woodland, shallow marsh, grassland, and agricultural fields." The DNR stocks the area with pheasant for the hunters. My eyes were opened to this when I asked our guide, Diane Robinson, about the sign: No pheasant hunting after 2:00 p.m. The stocking takes place after 2, she told me, so that there will be birds for the hunters in the morning.

 

An urban hike along Milwaukee's lakefront with Brew City Safari

Brew City Safari was founded by Christian Matson-Alvirez three years ago. I love its tag line: "Explore. Imagine. Get lost." Its mission--to take people on hikes in Milwaukee--appears simple at first blush. Advertise a time, location and route and the people who show up take a hike.

I only just learned about it last week. Coincidentally, the next scheduled hike was the following Sunday (which was this past Sunday). I immediately decided to go, even though the time was a challenging one: 3:30 a.m. The route, however, was definitely appealing: a six-mile loop around Milwaukee's lakefront.

Followers of this blog will find it unsurprising that I was an immediate convert. Talking with Christian during the hike, hearing him wax eloquent about his love of Milwaukee and urban hiking, was like plumbing my own thought process. If you find this idea as intriguing as I did, check out the schedule of hikes on the website. There is usually one per month.

Here are a few photos from our hike.

Our meetup location at North Point Park. Official guides wore glow-in-the-dark ringlets for identification.

Poet Robert Burns in Burns Commons, at the intersection of Farwell and Prospect. Turns out Christian loves the arts as well as Milwaukee. How cool is that!

I knew there was a statue of Solomon Juneau in Juneau Park, which is only sensible, right? But we discovered Leif the Discoverer there as well. As far as I know he never made it to Wisconsin. Go figure.

Still in the dark, we looped around the Milwaukee Art Museum. By the time we reached McKinley Marina the glow of pre-dawn lit up the harbor.

Looking back over McKinley Beach towards downtown just before sunrise.

And north towards North Point and Bradford Beach.

The sun made its appearance as we hiked along Bradford Beach.

We were not the only people out to witness the dawn. At the north end of the beach we spied a group of revelers cavorting in the dawn light.

The dawn light proved fleeting as a new bank of cloud cover approached. We walked up the closed ravine road and made out way back to our starting point through Lake Park. 

The next hike is Sept. 6, a Sunday afternoon stroll through the south side with special guest tour guide Adam Carr. Details on the website.

International Day of Peace: A visual meditation

September 21 was established as an official International Day of Peace in 1981 by the U.N. and, although a cursory glance at the media suggests otherwise, historical analysis has shown that violence in human culture is at an all time low globally. In honor of this day I offer a brief visual mediation from near and far.

The images, in order, are from Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM (2013); Arequipa, Peru (2009); 3 Bridges Park, Milwaukee, WI (2013); Masaya, Nicaragua (2006); Lake Michigan at Cedar Grove, WI (2012); Lanterns for Peace, Milwaukee, WI (2014).

Sunrise in 3 Bridges Park

I made this shot early in the morning last Saturday (the sun rose at 5:19 and it was a few minutes after that, to be exact.) It became quite popular after I posted it on facebook so I thought I'd repost it here for anyone who may have missed it there.

I thought I knew where I wanted to be at sunrise, which was next to the bridge crossing over from 3 Bridges Park to Mitchell Park. But when I got there and the sun peeked up over the skyline (at 5:19) I was disappointed. The foreground was uninteresting and the sky above the distant band of clouds was clear. It's hard to plan a good sunrise, I thought. Bit of a crap shoot. So I started walking back through the park. It was just as I reached the hill overlooking the pond that the closer band of clouds blew in overhead and reflected off the surface of the water.

Snake eyes.


This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.

Celebrating a sunless solstice morning

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I’ve had June 21—today—on my calendar for over a month, looking forward to the solstice, longest day of the year. I arose early to see the solstice sunrise from 3 Bridges Park in the Menomonee Valley. If you were out this morning you already know what I saw: fog.

Here is the view from the park in the direction of sunrise. I was out for a couple hours but there was no hint of sunshine. The gods must be displeased with something. I didn’t take it personally and did use the opportunity to take a quiet walk in the park. I wasn’t alone, either. Every few minutes I’d see a cyclist or someone walking along the Hank Aaron Trail.

More often than not they’d reply to my “Good morning” with “Buenos Días.” Despite the fog, it was a very good morning. Here are a few things that I saw.

I caught a few shots from other parts of the Valley as well. Fog inspires introspection. I've been thinking about the Viaducts and how they serve simultaneously to make a connection across the Valley and a barrier to access the Valley itself.

 

This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.