Rockwoods Reservation

We seem to have rather abruptly transitioned into spring here in the St. Louis area, and last weekend my wife and I decided to go for a hike -- but where? We knew that Queeny Park would be packed, as would the nearby bike trail, so we had to think a bit. Castlewood? We've been there many times. Shaw Nature Reserve? Same there -- have visited quite often. What about Rockwoods? Neither of us has ever been there, so it was decided!

Rockwoods Reservation is an 1880-acre conservation area on the western edge of the St. Louis metro area. We decided to take the long way there, driving down 44 until we hit 109 -- that stretch of Interstate 44 is really quite beautiful at almost any time of year -- and about 30 minutes later we reached the conservation area.

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Trying to PNW up the place

I've always loved moss and lichen, even before gardening and plants became an obsession. Around here both usually go unnoticed, unless you're an astute observer of Nature or are a plant person. Or you're a rock person -- as I am.

The other morning when I was scraping together some frost photos before the early sunlight replaced the "frosty" description with plain old "wet", I happened to look up at the gutter above the deck. Imagine my surprise to see it dotted with lichen!

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Devils Tower, the next day

The evening bike ride really tired us out, but after a good night's sleep we were ready to break camp and see the tower up close with sufficient light.

We left pretty early as we knew from the previous evening that there were limited parking spots for RVs up there. (That's the view from our campsite with the tower lit by the morning light. So nice!)

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Quiet morning in Yellowstone

It's taking me longer to get together the more interesting Yellowstone photos than I thought.  (A word of advice: before taking hundreds of irreproducible photos, make sure your lenses and sensor are as clean as possible or you'll be retouching dust specks for hours.)

So I thought I'd give you a quick look at our first Yellowstone campsite: Canyon campground.

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Texture

It rained again this weekend (I'll gladly give up some weekend garden time if this continues throughout the summer!) so I was just poking around with my camera when I heard a few barred owls calling down the street.

I went to try and get a glimpse of them (I didn't) and on the walk back I noticed my neighbor's ash tree has a fantastic covering of moss and lichen, and I couldn't resist taking lots of photos.

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Rock

Actually, "rock" is probably not the most descriptive title for this post.

It's just that "weathered garden rocks covered in fascinating patterns of mosses, lichen, and algae" doesn't make a very catchy title.

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Soil? Soil is for wimps!

In the world of plants, there is a lot to love. There's so much variety in size, shape, color, fragrance, form, and dozens of other factors that those of us who love growing plants can't help but find a few favorites -- plants we are just drawn to for some reason. For me, it's typically the big vigorous plants that you kind of need to fight with and show who's boss: bamboos, elephant ears, big ornamental grasses, vines.

But there's another type of "plant" that I'm fascinated by way at the other end of the scale. Tiny, ubiquitous organisms that typically go unnoticed, but have a lot to offer to those who care to look. I'm talking about lichens.

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