I find there are three ways to do the Miller Woods trail at the Indiana Dunes National Park. First is to simply take the trail all the way out to Lake Michigan and back, a second way is to take the abandoned railroad spur over to the US Steel Gary Works.
A third way is to do just the shorter loop around the pannes next to the Nature Center. This results in a much shorter hike of about a mile, and avoids going up and down the dune ridges in soft sand which can be surprisingly taxing. Late spring is a great time to do this short loop as it is packed with a nice variety of wild flowers, especially Wild Lupine which turns whole swatches of the land blue. A later post will be devoted to just the Wild Lupine, but for the moment I want to highlight some other other actors in this beautiful scene.
Lily of the Valley is prevalent at the start of the trail near the Nature Center.As with most of the park this time of year, Wild Columbine is all over the place. Unlike most wild flowers, Columbine points downward towards the ground rather than upwards toward the sun.Because of it’s downward orientation, it can be challenging to get shots of the inside of the flower of Wild Columbine. On this sunny day I took advantage of the sun to create a strongly backlit shot. One of my guiding principles for doing nature photography is that you simply have to work with what nature decides to give you on a given day. Under the conditions I knew it would be difficult to try and get a well balanced shot of the inside of the flower, so I went with the backlit composition which is what was on tap this day.Another example of taking what nature is giving. The leaves here are still covering up the flower within but by using a fast aperture, f4 in this case, I was able to render it against a wonderfully smooth and creamy background that I find very appealing.The flowers of Black Huckleberry are tiny, numerous, a lovely reddish-pink color, and present in large dense patches through out the whole park.It can be difficult to bring out the subtle colors of Pussy Toes on a bright sunny day due to their largely white color which is easy to blow out if you are not careful with your exposure.I have been coming across these quite a bit lately. Still have not figured out what the plant is, which is half the fun of doing nature photography. You are always coming across things you have not identified yet.Blue Eye Grass. The flower is really tiny which makes it a nice subject when using a macro lens.I said I would leave the Wild Lupine for another post, but it would be a shame not to include one shot of it. Not quite in full bloom yet, but it will be soon.Where you find Wild Lupine you will usually also find Wood Betony as they both like the same sandy soil conditions.Even though I focus on up close photography, I do take the occasional bird shot. This Sandhill Crane was just hanging out most of the time I was here. I see these birds quite frequently in the Great Marsh over on the east end of the park. This is the first time I caught one on the ground at Miller Woods.
My previous two posts described my first volunteer experience planting native sedges in the Great Marsh, and the short photo-hike I did before hand. Turns out I was so energized by the restoration work that afterwards I drove over to the Miller Woods trail at the IDNP for another photo-hike. It was mid-April and the wild flowers are just beginning to pop up there so I wanted to see how things were looking. As always, I was not disappointed.
Violets are typically one of the early bloomers along this wooded sandy trail near the lake.Based on the leaves and the fingers at the base of the flower, I suspect this is Wild Columbine which is plentiful on this trail.I find the rich colors and textures in leftover berries to be fascinating subjects for photography.Not quite sure what these are, they look real familiar though. Maybe kinnikinnick?Emergent Lupine. In a few weeks a large part of this trail is going to be covered in purple/blue Lupine.Some type of Willow I think.
