Tall Grass Prairie Reserve National Park Makes Me Grouchy

The only bird I was able to photograph with the telescopic lense - I was not quick enough for the others!

Fungus, growing in December?

My hiking abilities limited me to this single vista.

I thought I had photographed a little bird bathing in this crystal pool.  When I downloaded the images, it appears I captured a rock that looks remarkably like a domestic chick.



Have to give the Nature Conservancy brownie points for trying, but these signs made us laugh, right out loud.  The parking lot was tiny and this reward was so negligible as to make it not worth the environmental pollution required to manufacture the signs!
 

I finally made the trip to the Tall Grass Prairie Reserve National Park, though it is not the best time of year to view the prairie.  The verdant spring would be the most beautiful season to visit, but December is guaranteed to not draw many visitors.  The less people I have to deal with, the happier I am.  I still found cigarette butts and dogshit in the trails. 

"Tallgrass prairie once covered more than 170 million acres of the United States, from Indiana to Kansas and from Canada to Texas. Nearly all of it is gone, plowed under for agriculture or urban development."  All the more reason to let tourists toss their butts around and their dogs shit where the rest of us walk.  At least the dogshit will eventually dissolve.

As limited as I am by painful knees, I was still able to walk almost a mile and a half.  I grieved that I was not able to take the six mile hike in order to see the most beautiful part of the reserve but that is why we have digital photography available on the internet:  Tall Grass Prairie National Park