Camp Chowenwaw Park

Entrance To Camp Chow

On Saturday January 26 Nature Man joined his Florida Master Naturalist Freshwater Wetlands class for a field trip to Camp Chowenwaw Park ( the locals call Camp Chow) in Eastern Clay County. Before I get into the wonderful things we learned on this field trip let me tell you about Champ Chow. The Park is a 150 – acre site that Clay County purchased in the Spring of 2006 from the Girl Scouts of Gateway Council. The Girl Scouts operated the camp for more than 70 years before deciding to relocate. The parcel has 100 acres of wetlands and 50 acres of uplands, and is located at the mouth of Black Creek. This relatively pristine site contains predominantly undisturbed upland and wetland natural communities. Camp Chow Park is located on 1.5 miles of shoreline on Black Creek and Peters Creek and provides a habitat for many water birds. The aquatic vegetation provides foraging areas for the St. Johns River manatee population as well as an ideal habitat for many fish species. Bald eagles, river otters, white tailed deer, turkeys, alligators, foxes, raccoons, migrating songbirds, as well as frogs, lizards, snakes, and turtles are just a few of the creatures you might see while visiting Camp Chow.

Macroinvertebrates


Macroinvertebrates

Barbara Beyerl Providing Instruction

Our day started out at 9AM at the small freshwater pond where Assistant Park Ranger Barbara Beyerl gave us each a canvas dip net, an observation pan to separate and clean up the creatures we found in the net at the bottom of the pond, a plastic cup to dip fresh pond water to observe the creatures more closely once they were "cleaned up" and a plastic spoon to get a real isolated look at mostly tiny freshwater Macroinvertebrates.  In this phase of our training we found the following interesting creatures: Mayfly, Damselfly, Dragon Fly, Gastropod Snail, Crayfish and various minnows just to name a few.  Needless to say we were amazed at the diversity of creatures we found in a 60 minute dip netting session.

Allan Hallman (FWC)

Bottomland Forest
Our next expedition was a short hike through a Flood Plane Forest or Bottomland Forest on the Jungle and Treehouse trails. On this two hour hike we found and learned about numerous woody and non-woody plants, trees, flowers, mushrooms and freshwater grasses from our instructors Carol Wyninger, Allan Hallman and Beth Smith. A few of the findings on these very instructional and wonderfully visual hikes were: Swamp Rose, Elm, Dahoon Holly, Air Plant, Rain Lily, Arrowhead, Witch Hazel and Devils Walking Stick. The day was capped off by Alan collecting Raccoon Scat (that's poop for you novices) in a ziplock bag so he could dry it out and share with children's school classes he instructs on nature.  By the way Allan is an Area Supervisor for the Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC) and believe me he is a wealth of knowledge.  He knows the Latin Name for just about every plant and creature known to man in Northeast Florida. In addition to being a very knowledgeable FWC Area Supervisor he also handles nuisance bear calls 24 hours a day. Early this very same day Allan got an early AM call about a large male Florida Black Bear that unfortunately was hit by a car and killed in Clay County.  Before joining us at Camp Chow Allan had help from a County Sheriff hoisting the 300 pounder up into the back of his FWC Ford Pickup Truck.  His description of how he and the police officer worked the bear up on the tailgate was priceless. Thank you Allan for all you do!

What Camp Chow Has To Offer
In conclusion, Camp Chow would be a great place for parents to take their children camping and share all things wonderful in nature while visiting the park. Recreational activities include camping, picnicking, kayaking, canoeing, swimming, fishing, bird watching, wildlife viewing, outdoor photography, and hiking. The trail systems through the uplands and the wetlands offer scenic tracts for the hiking enthusiast.  Camping facilities include 15 tent sites, two lodges with bunk beds sleeping 16 people per cabin, 9 tree house cabins, each accommodating 4 people, and 7 cabins with bunk beds sleeping 4 – 8 people.  Each campsite has a bathhouse with full restroom accommodations, and a unit house with electricity, including a stove and refrigerator.  Located throughout the park, and at each campsite, are picnic tables and grills for use by campers and park visitors.  To minimize impacts on natural resources and to protect our plant and wildlife communities, vehicle access is limited.  Camping sites and cabins are accessed by walking trails.  The park is ideally suited as a natural outdoor environmental education facility when you consider the setting, location, and proximity of diverse upland and wetland ecosystems.  Classes and naturalist programs for organized groups and the public are available in outdoor and indoor classrooms.  The natural outdoor laboratory allows an opportunity for all conservation minded organizations to become involved with projects to promote protection and conservation enhancement of aquatic, terrestrial habitat, and wildlife in St. Johns watersheds. Camping Reservations can be made by contacting the Park office: (904) 529-8058. 

Nature Man Photography is pleased to bring you the following:

Air Plant

Rain Lily

Black Creek

Dahoon Holly

Devils Walking Stick

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park Entrance Sign

Yosemite National Park was created in 1980. The park occupies the heart of John Muir's "Range of Light" in the Sierra Nevada. The name means "snowy ridge" in Spanish, and in winter more than 60 feet of snow may accumulate. Yet the Sierra has also been called the gentle wilderness, because extremes of temperature are not great and hiking days of summer are comparatively dry and sunny. Elevations in Yosemite range from 2,000 to more than 13,000 feet, from the rolling oak woodlands of the western slope to the jagged mountain crest, where offspring of the great glaciers that carved  the spectacular topography still like in shady hollows above thousands of lakes. Then, to the east, the land abruptly drops away to the apparently endless sagebrush desert of the Great Basin. There are three groves of giant sequoia trees, the largest living things on earth, miles of forests and meadows, and rich and varied collection of wildflowers, wildlife, and history galore. Then there is the incomparable valley itself, Yosemite, surrounded by massive granite domes and spires and blooming waterfalls, and in the summer season, many tourists.
 
Our Visit to Yosemite

Lyell Fork Creek

When My Wife and I and friends Walt and Mary visited the park in mid-June of 2013 we experienced sensational clear blue skies each day with highs in the low to mid-70's and lows in the 50's. No rain the entire 4 days. We found that if you venture away from the Valley to Tuolume Meadows and the John Muir/Pacific Crest Trail you will find much less traffic and very beautiful trails along with excellent Brown Trout Fly-fishing on the Lyell Fork Creek.  On Tioga Road, traveling towards the Tuolume Meadows and the Pacific Crest Trail, there were very scenic views of Yosemite Valley from the East side.

Wildflowers

Yosemite is a hiker's paradise because of its wonderful diversity. At every turn you see something different and beautiful. The Sierra
Nevada range is only about 400 by 70 miles in extent and is mostly gray granite rock, yet every nook and cranny, even stream drainage or mountain peak, is different from the rest. Yosemite has more than 1,300 species of flowering plants, 223 kinds of birds and 77 kinds of mammals. On our visit we had the pleasure of seeing many varieties of beautiful wildflowers all over the park, Giant Sequoias in Mariposa Grove, deer everywhere, wild trout in just about every small steam or brook we encountered and many species of song birds. While we did not see any bears in Yosemite, please note that only black bears reside in the park. The grizzly is now extinct in California. The waterfalls, especially the Upper and Lower Yosemite, as well as Bridalveil, Vernal and Nevada are second to none.  Upper Yosemite is the tallest waterfall in North America.

Yosemite Lodge at The Falls

Camping and Lodges
Several campgrounds are available in the Valley along with Yosemite Lodge at the Falls and the award winning Ahwahnee Hotel.  We elected to stay at the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. The rooms were a little dated, but clean and included a stop practically at your front door on the free shuttle bus which would quickly take you to any site in the Valley.  We used the bus many times to get to trails, shopping at the shopping village and to various restaurants and a great sandwich deli.

 

Nature Man Photography is pleased to bring you the following:





Half Dome

Vernal Falls

California Quail

 Ahwahnee Hotel Dining Room

I Went Fishing and Caught Four Deer

This story appeared in the Sitka Gazette and shared by Nature Man for you nature lovers.

 

 

A once in the history of mankind kind of thing. The Best Day Of Fishing Ever! Some fishing stories are a little hard to believe but this guy has pictures to prove his story... I've heard of salmon jumping into boats, but never anything quite like this...

Tom Satre told the Sitka Gazette that he was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat.

"Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat. In all my years fishing, I've never seen anything quite like it! Once on board, they collapsed with exhaustion, shivering."

 



"This is a picture I took of the rescued bucks on the back of my boat, the Alaska Quest. We headed for Taku Harbour .  Once we reached the dock, the first buck that we had pulled from the water hopped onto the dock, looked back as if to say 'thank you' and disappeared into the forest. After a bit of prodding and assistance, two more followed, but the smallest deer needed a little more help.

 



This is me carrying the little guy.

 

 

My daughter, Anna, and son, Tim, helped the last buck to its feet. We didn't know how long they had been in the icy waters or if there had been others who did not survive. My daughter later told me that the experience was something that she would never forget, and I suspect the deer felt the same way as well!"

"Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear." - Mark Twain

 

 

Everglades National Park

A wood stork silently wades shallow waters like a drum major in slow motion. Bill submerged, its great dark head sweeps back and forth across shallow, murky waters. Look closely, because this dramatic wading bird is endangered. Its significant decline symbolizes the magnitude of environmental  threats stalking today's Everglades. River of Grass was the description affixed to this gently sloping landscape in the 1940's by pioneering conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Within the park this river still flows slowly towards bay and gulf. Its grandeur is now severely threatened, however, and the death of the Everglades could occur. This is still the first national park created to protect a threatened ecological system.

Visitor Centers
Make your first stop in the park at one of its four visitor centers. The staff can help you plan the best use of your time and answer questions about park facilities and activities. Informative publications are sold at the visitor centers.

Boardwalk

Best Way to Visit
The best way to visit the park is to take time to walk the boardwalks and trails along the main park road and to join in ranger-led events. Naturalists give talks and lead hikes, canoe trips, tram tours, and campfire programs. At Everglades City the Gulf Coast Visitor Center is the park's western saltwater gateway.  Narrated boat tours explore the pristine Ten Thousand Islands and coastal mangrove. At Shark Valley the wildlife-viewing tram tour through sawgrass prairie includes a stop at a 65 foot tower for spectacular views. Birds and alligator viewing rank among the park's best here.

Walking Trails
Experience the diversity of Everglades environments by walking short, wheel-chair-accessible trails from parking areas throughout the park. At Royal Palm the Anhinga Trail, a 1/2 mile loop trail, offers one of the best opportunities to view wildlife, including alligators and birds up close. The Gumbo Limbo Trail, a 1/2 mile loop, winds through a jungle-like tropical hardwood hammock reshaped by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Along the main park road the Pinelands Trail, a 1/2 mile loop, explores a subtropical pine forest maintained by fire. The pinelands are the most diverse land habitat in south Florida. At Pa-hay-okee Overlook a 1/2 mile boardwalk leads to an observation tower offering a panoramic view of the River of Grass. A 1/2 mile boardwalk at Mahogany Hammock crosses the Glades and loops through a subtropical tree island with massive mahogany trees. The West Lake Trail, a 1/2 mile boardwalk, loops deep into a forest of salt-tolerant, prop-rooted mangrove trees.  At Flamingo's Eco Pond a short walk leads to a wildlife-viewing platform.  At Shark Valley the Bobcat Boardwalk, a 1/4 mile walk from the visitor center, loops through sawgrass prairie and a bayhead. At Otter Cave a one-mile round trip from the visitor center enters subtropical hardwood hammock.

Camping
Long Pine Key and Flamingo campgrounds offer drinking water, picnic tables, grills, restrooms, dump-stations and tent and trailer sites. Coldwater showers only are available at Flamingo, fees are charged in winter. Recreational vehicles are permitted, but there are no electrical, water or sewage hookups. Wilderness camping permits are required for all backcountry sites and are issued no more than 24 hours in advance; fees are charged seasonally.

Nature Man Photography is pleased to bring you the following:

Crocodile at Flamingo Campground

River of Grass