White Pines Nature Preserve-White Pine Trail and River Trail

 The White Pines Trail and the River Trail combined equaled just under 2-miles of hiking. Because of this it was possible for me to take along my youngest son Aaron, who was eager to put his new hiking stick that his grandfather made to good use.

Living in Michigan most of my life and with the White Pine being the state tree it wasn't all that intriguing to see White Pines. It is unusual to see White Pines in this region because of the warmer weather that occurs east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. But because of a North-facing slope of the preserve that creates cooler temperature as much as 10 degrees the White Pines can survive and grow here.

The name of this river is Rocky River, which is entirely appropriate. Aaron and Gypsy could cross the river in spots simply by hopping from rock to rock. 

At the "Y" where the Deep River and Rocky River meets this rock slab bench is situated so to view the junction of the two rivers.

I love trying to identify trees, and that isn't alway easy. At first I thought this was a Shagbark Hickory but I'm not entirely convinced now.

We were admiring this mushroom saying how we thought it look like a miniature nuclear explosion. Later we discovered this was a Destroying Angel aka Death Angel one of the most poisonous mushrooms in the world! Death Angel is the cause of a significant portion of Mushroom-related fatalities.

This hike could have taken less than an hour. But having a 10-year-old who not only likes looking at rocks, trees, water, also loves climbing on rocks, wading in water, and touching the bark of trees. He found interest in things I would never have given a second thought of such as a large pinecone or a nut he has never seen before. We spent two hours enjoy this nature preserve.