The Miller Woods trail is one of my favorites, I have hiked it 27 times in the last two and a half years. With its mix of dunes, wetlands and Black Oak savanna it boasts a wonderful array of fall colors. It also comprises three distinct zones, which I will illustrate in this three post series.
Unfortunately access to this trail, and its accompanying nature center, has been restricted by road construction on Lake St. in Miller Beach. About a month ago the road was so bad they closed the nature center and parking lot. This was a shame because it meant that fewer people were able to experience this amazing area during the peak of the fall colors. It was accessible however, you just had to park outside the construction area and walk to the trail head, which is what I did on this day.
This is the view looking up the road from the trail head. The construction looks like maybe it is nearing completion, hopefully. A month ago it was all deeply rutted mud and probably dangerous to your car if you did not have decent ground clearance. Fortunately there was not much construction activity so it was no problem walking in.
The first half of the trail is a mixture of Black Oak forested dunes and inner dunal wetlands known as Swales. Although it may appear like a typical forest trail, the ground here has a very high sand content which drains very effectively into the adjoining wetland areas. For this reason this is a great trail to hike either during or after a period of heavy rain, as the trail itself remains largely free of standing water and never becomes muddy.
With the changing seasons the sun is now lower in the sky, which creates more interesting shadow dynamics. It can however be challenging to avoid harsh contrasts in landscapes this time of year. But this is what makes nature photography fun, you have to learn to work with whatever nature gives you on any given day.
One of the many inner dunal ponds, also known as swales, which are found in the low lying areas between sand dune ridges. From the trail head to the lake you pass by about a dozen of these small shallow wetland areas.
This particular depression is always filled with these tall reeds. Your first sight of them comes as you reach the crest of a dune ridge and the panorama of uniformly tall, tan reeds is stunning. As a photographer I am always drawn to the texture of vertical lines created by the individual reeds as seen in mass.
This bridge over a channel connecting two lagoons marks the transition from the Black Oak forest Swale and Dune complex, into an area dominated by sandier dunes and lagoons. It really is a distinct transition between the two which I find to be quite enticing.
I explore the next segment of the trail in the post Hike 141 – Miller Woods Trail pt2.