St. Francois State Park

Wildflower season is upon us!

Picked this hike because reviews on AllTrails said the bluebells were in full swing. I didn't know this was a thing! Well, now we both know that the Swimming Deer Trail in St. Francois State Park is blanketed in bluebells at the start of the season! 

Everywhere you look, those cheery little bells are ringing in the season. We'll have to make a regular event of this! 

 

In addition to bluebells, we saw so many beautiful shapes and colors rising from the dead leaves - Dutchman's Breeches, poppies, lilies, ferns... I took gobs of photos and played with my macro lens. This trail featured epic views of the St. Francois River, which I love since I'm used to floating and rarely get this perspective, enhanced by the lack of foliage for another couple of weeks. 

There also are some cool rock formations and mossy rectangular boulders strewn along the way. Not too challenging, not too muddy, really enjoyed this one.

After Swimming Deer, we had lunch at a picnic table in a little park area to the sound of kids on a playground begging grandma for more pop-tarts and walking their puppies around the creek bed. Then, we set off on one more trail - Mooner's Hollow. 

Amazing how much difference between two trails in the same park! This trail had lovely views looking up creek beds rather than peering down on the river. And the mossy boulders were replaced by dusty, red dirt stretches of the trail. Saw all of the ferns on this trail. And one cat, on a leash, on a walk with his people, who said he got tired of being inside all the time... ???

When we got home, I uploaded them all into the PictureThis app that Ryan found me for my birthday. It keeps a catalog of all the specimens I have identified, which makes it feel like a nature-collecting game, and I love it. Many descriptions also include a relevant poem, which is thought-provoking. 

Here's a list of all the specimens I collected on this hike!

• Bloodroot
• Celandine poppy
• Christmas fern
• Dutchman's breeches
• Fragrant sumac
• Garlic mustard
• Ohio buckeye
• Petty spurge
• Sharplobe hepatica
• Spreading jacob's ladder
• White fawnlily
• Wild blue phlox
• Wood betony
• Violet woodsorrel
• Virginia bluebells

Pics I used to identify all of these (and then some!) can be found here. 

(PS there are LOTS of pictures of Ohio buckeye, because just look at this fascinating alien plant!)