two creeks buried forest is a fascinating site. a small prairie on the side of a highway that falls off into a sandy bluff over lake michigan, the bluffside is the amazing part here, tho the prairie was a solid walk too.

according to the dnr page for the site, the woody material partially uncovered by the wave action and other erosion is actually a buried forest grown and submerged in between periods of glaciation. when the cary glacier retreated, a boreal forest grew; then the valders glacier enabled the flooding of the area, flattening the forest, and covering the area with deposits. debris from the forest like “needles, cones, mosses, and terrestrial snails” are present in addition to wood, the radiocarbon dating of which has revealed it to be 11,850 years old. in addition to making the dating of the interglacial periods clear, the site’s evidence shows that entire forests could establish themselves in between glacial waves. i haven’t been so fascinated by the dnr’s description of an sna for a long while.

our walk was good, especially seeing a small flock of geese fly in and play around in the surf below. it would have been cool to go investigate the remains close up, but the sensitive nature of the site kept us respectfully atop the bluff.

a.

seven geese splashing

as they light

honking in the surf

b.

the mummified wood

white, blasted:

forest memory