Every fall, our family visits Oak Grove, a nearby park on the Sioux River. It covers five hundred plus acres of combined state and county conservation land with hiking trails, picnic areas, cabins and campsites. We park on top of the ridge and find a trail through the scrub oak trees to slowly make our way down to the river bottom.
The river flooded this past summer, changing the landscape. Sand and debris washed into the woodland, excavator tracks show where dirt has been redistributed and re-leveled. Ancient outcroppings of rose-tinted Sioux quartzite remain solidly undisturbed along the upper trail.
Reaching up, young cottonwoods glow golden in late afternoon. Scarlet sumac stunningly line the prairie grassland. The predominant oaks simply turn brown and drop large lobed leaves on the trail below their gnarly trunks. A few spruce and juniper stand green and ever verdant.
leaves blanket steep trail
hiker’s step crunches, slides on
dry patterns fallen
a poem in my pocket 
Oct 22, 2024 @ 14:18:12
Sounds like a perfect place to visit for an autumn walk.
Oct 22, 2024 @ 21:54:20
We do enjoy the scenery while walking the trails…not a lot of forests in Iowa!
Oct 22, 2024 @ 13:23:16
Beautifully done, rekindles my liking of autumn I lost ..
Oct 22, 2024 @ 19:30:23
Glad you liked it, Ain! I’m sorry I cannot comment on your blog but I do appreciate your poetry. It’s sadly true that we live in between wars in this fallen world.
Oct 22, 2024 @ 09:21:02
❤️
Oct 22, 2024 @ 09:17:00
Beautifully done, Lynn!
Oct 22, 2024 @ 19:27:07
Thanks for stopping by, Dwight! I think we missed the best and brightest fall colors this year but we go when we can 🙂
Oct 22, 2024 @ 06:38:14
Looks like a beautiful place to visit, Lynn, and it’s huge! I love your description of ‘young cottonwoods [that] glow golden in late afternoon’ and ‘scarlet sumac [that] stunningly line the prairie grassland’ – species unfamiliar to me, but I can imagine them.
Oct 22, 2024 @ 08:13:40
Thanks for your comments, Kim! It is a huge conservation area and also has a nature center that features educational exhibits.
Oct 22, 2024 @ 08:43:20
You’re most welcome, Lynn!
Oct 21, 2024 @ 23:22:53
Nice one Lynn
much♡love
Oct 22, 2024 @ 08:14:17
❤