Shaw Nature Reserve

On Friday, my cousin Mike and I went on an expedition to check out Shaw Nature Reserve, which neither of us had ever been to! It's just outside St. Louis County on highway 44, near Gray Summit, about a 45 minute drive for us. It would have been a five dollar entrance fee for each of us at the visitor center, but Mike has a membership with the Missouri Botanical Garden, so we got in free!

I was dismayed to learn that the larger road loop is closed on weekends, because I had been looking at the trails online and the one I was hoping to do was too far to walk. However, there were a lot of others to choose from, and we ended up improvising pretty well. We started by driving out on the shorter loop that was still open. It was prairie on all sides, with a few isolated trees and forest in the distance. We stopped at the first parking area, which was for one of the houses on the property, and the wildflower garden. The garden was beautiful!

A Family Bike Ride

(Insert standard disclaimer about having gotten really behind and never sorted through the photos from last fall...)

Yesterday my family went on a bike ride together. We used to do this all the time - we always brought our bikes on summer trips, and would ride around the neighborhood, but it's been years since my sister and I did much riding, and we have no idea how long it's been since the four of us did one together! I'm still at home right now, and since school is out my sister the teacher was free, so we made plans to get up bright and early to beat the heat.

We didn't leave at 6:30, but we did leave just after 7:00, which isn't bad for us! Dad was still able to get the bike rack and all four bikes up on top of the Jeep, and we had our helmets and water bottles in the trunk. We didn't take time for breakfast, just some granola bars and bananas, and we headed off.

Our destination was Horseshoe Lake State Park in Illinois, which was only 23 miles away. It's a natural lake, formed when an old oxbow curve of the river got cut off. As we drove across the Mississippi, we could see some flooded fields, and lots of egrets taking advantage of the temporary wetlands! There were white birds everywhere. Presumably a lot of minnows and other critters got stranded when the floods receded, so there was plenty to eat.

As we drove into the park and along the lake, we saw several great blue herons, and a colony of Canada geese, including some fuzzy ones! Actually, the goslings were all getting pretty big - still cute, but getting their adult necks.

We parked, and I took a few pictures while Dad and Mom were unloading the bikes. (I would have been in the way!)