Lower Woodcock Lake Preserve and Esch Rd Beach

Last Saturday was a beautiful day. We had already kayaked in the morning, but wanted to explore a bit more to take advantage of the weather and color. We chose to visit the Lower Woodcock Lake Nature Preserve, part of the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy. We had never visited this site and were anxious to explore somewhere new.

The trail map shows several trails around the lake. We only did a short loop hike from the trailhead to the lake and back.

Even at the trailhead we knew the colors were going to be great.

The trail was easy and surrounded by color.

At the lake, we were greeted by blue water and colorful trees.

This was the view toward the south end of the lake, brilliant in the sun.

There is a nice dock at the lake with a kayak launch. There were several of these dragon flies, the Autumn Meadowhawk, which were as orange as the trees.

The lower trail along the lake was a bit narrower.

The view straight up was great with fall colors against the clear, blue sky.

There was a good coating of leaves already on the ground which yielded to footsteps with that characteristic sound of fall.

Here’s another view of the sky.

After leaving the nature preserve, we headed toward the Sleeping Bear area. Along the way we found this barn with beautiful trees around it.

We stopped at the Esch Road Beach on Lake Michigan. This is such a busy beach in the summer, but today there were very few people around.

Otter Creek flows out of the woods and into Lake Michigan.

Looking to the north you can see that Otter Creek parallels the lake shore quite a ways before emptying into the lake.

Looking back to the south from near the outlet of Otter Creek into the lake.

This is just a fun photo of our shadows.

We took full advantage of the weather and fall color today. I hope you can get out to enjoy what nature has to offer this fall.

Mark