Prophetstown State Park

Yesterday I went to Prophetstown State Park for the first time since I have lived in the area and that has been since August of 2014! I went to the Native Plant sale that they do every year and spent close to $50 on native plant seedlings to plant in my yard in various places. I will talk all about that in a separate post when I get them all planted.

After buying someplants, I decided to take advantage of being there and go walking on one of the trails. I decided to go to the closest one from the visitor's center where I was and that was trail #1 which was a little over two miles, but easy. Because it is me, it took me a couple of minutes to find the actual trail even though it was clearly marked. I started to walk and was following the signs. I got to a sign that said 2 and thought it meant mile two. Wrong, it was for trail #2 not a continuation of trial #1. I ended up at a different parking lot from where I started because the map said the trail started and ended at the same spot. I quickly realized that somewhow I got on Trail #2 because the numbers on the signs are the trail numbers and not the mile markers. I ended up walking for almost an hour and a half and did 5.15 miles according to my FitBit. Enjoy the pitures and continue narration of my morning below.

It was a beautiful day, somewhat cloudy and overcast, but there were times when the sun came out. It was definitely humid as I worked up a sweat, but it wasn't too hot in my opinion. It had the feeling of early summer when you can feel the humidity and can feel the heat coming and it takes you to those days at the lake or the beach wishing those long, hot days will never end.

I saw lots of wildflowers, like these wild geraniums in the picture that were just beautiful!

This is a picture of some wild Toad Trillium, the ones with the red spikes at the top of the plants. The white flowers I believe are a berry, but I am not sure about the purple flowers. I think I am getting better at identifying native wildflowers to Indiana though thanks to Google and Pinterest. However, I have noticed now that on my iPhone that when I have a picture of a flower or plant that the phone automatically knows this and will look up the information online if you want. I guess that is cool and could be helpful in certain situations.

This is a picture of wild Columbine. I am not sure if there was Columbine at the native plant sale, but I think there was. I regret not taking one because it is quite stunning and almost tropical looking. It is amazing to me that even in Indiana that has such long and cold winters, that we have ferns and wildflowers that give off such a tropical and jungle-like vibe.

Towards the end of my walk, I almost missed this little one, but besides plenty of birds, some butterflies, squirrels, I got to spot a turtle! I had to take a picture and say hi, but for some reason I don't think he was too pleased that I stopped and bothered him going throughout his day.

Even though I walked a lot more than I planned to, I had a great time walking around Prophetstown all alone and for almost the entire time didn't see any other people and it was just me and the sound of nature: the birds, the breeze, the water babbling from the stream. It makes me realize how important natural landscapes are and how much we need to preserve them!

Finally, make sure that you check yourself for ticks! While I was using the restroom, I felt something crawling up my knee. I looked down and sure enough it was a small tick. I am not sure if you can see it in the picture, but I caught it before it bit me. I threw it down the toilet, but felt a bit creeped out and tried to check myself all over. I thoroughly checked my body when I got home because ticks are not to be messed with and you don't want one attaching itself to your body! It is that time of the year and they are out there!