A (three hour!) hike through Shaw Nature Reserve today…

Prairie Oats: love these golden chevrons!

Hitting the trail

Burnt to a crisp! You can spot lots of lighting damage to trees at Shaw

The Spy

Balance

Baby and Smoochie

Prairie/Tree Line

Golden Grass

Right or left?

Stump

Sumac

Hmmm what’s this?

Rock/Moss

Cliff

Likin’ this lichen

Red berries, red sweatshirt

Teepee

Huge…

Sycamore

Gravel Bar

Throwing rocks into the Meramec

Silty

Showing off rocks

And shells!

A purple plant (covered in silt)

A heart

Meramec River

Silty Sand

Crystal-ly

Sycamore bark is my favorite! Looks like paint by numbers.

Narrow Trail

Overhang

Ridge

Boardwalk through the prairie

This would be a great tree for a treehouse!

Nice view (even with a gray sky)

Prairie

So dreamy

Entrance of a path through the prairie
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As always, your photography is beautiful! My favorite is the Prairie Oats – simply stunning!
Thanks!!
Loving the cthullu stump ;). Do you harvest the sumac and use it in your cooking?
Didn’t get the Cthullu reference; had to google it, then felt I should know because H.P. Lovecraft is one of my dad’s favorite writers. No, I have a harvesting deficiency. I just photograph everything. ;) But I should…
I just opened up a stack of seed packets that a friend gave us before heading AWOL to Germany. I decided that I would just scatter everything everywhere inside Sanctuary. My experiments in compost pile growing are going great guns with the individual veggie seedlings that I planted in my compost piles growing much better than those in the open beds…lots to learn (most probably lots to regret from seeding the garden with dill and parsley but whatchagonnadoeh? ;) )
This place looks so fantastic and your pictures are so lovely. Baby’s red was a great idea – can’t lose her and red lights up a photograph! My favorites are Golden Grass, Rock/Moss, Lichen, Red berries, red shirt (should be entered into a contest) and the lone tree at the end. You’ve got a great eye (of course)!
You are too kind! The place is a photographer’s dream; it actually said that on a flier I saw posted offering different photography workshops there! They also have maple syrup making, basket making and other classes/activities throughout the winter. I think it is officially my favorite place in the St. Louis area. Nearly 2500 acres; still many more parts of Shaw for us to explore!
Wonderful landscape photos
Thanks!