Bald Bluff Prairie, November

The Mississippi River Conservancy recently purchased almost 400 acres adjacent to our town from a private owner and quietly opened the land to public use. A serious hike’s required to get to the top of the bluff, following a ravine watercourse, but once you’re up there vistas spread out and it’s beyond lovely. With only foot or horseback traffic permitted, the trail’s quiet and lonely in the best way. Mind space and woods space to wander sprawls invitingly. Some of the land was once grazed and bits of old open pasture and decayed fence-line remain; beyond that its all woods, prairie sky and critters, overhead, underfoot and under cover all around. I’ve been up top twice so far, the last time late on an overcast day with falling light. Here’s some of it:

Back-lit prairie grasses, goldenrod variants and lead plant glow like a Moroccan skyline at sunset

Nature’s minarets calling all to rest at dusk

Sumac spread flamelike through the brittle grasses

Switch or Panic Grasses embraced by the wind inscribe its passage

Tiny seeds shoot skyward and arcing, fall like blossoming fireworks

Who what when why was the fence built and abandoned? Nature Prevails

However empty the trail, in the woods we’re never alone. Whether wild things or memories, watchers abound. For Paul Mathis, gone too soon, GCAFM

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