Hartwick Pines Old Growth Forest

Tuesday morning we woke up to the coldest morning. It was minus 10 degrees and wasn't rising very fast. It was too cold to go snowmobiling so we decided to visit Hartwick Pines State Park. I'm the nature nut in the family but surprisingly Craig really enjoyed the visit too. One of the main attractions at the park is a 50 acres white pine old growth forest. It has a 1 mile walking trail through it. So what is an old growth forest? Apparently it is one of only 3 forests in Michigan (the other 2 are in the U.P.) that was spared the logging days of the 1800's. These trees are 300 to 400 years old and they are massive!! Not to mention beautiful!!
It had snowed the night before we visited and the forest and trees were covered with the most beautiful new fallen snow. It was like we were walking in Narnia. And because it was so cold we were the only humans that braved it that morning.

The wind would blow and a fine mist of snow would fall from the trees making it look like it was foggy. Craig and I would just stand in awe.

We really had no intention of walking the whole mile but the further we went the more we were drawn in.

I thought I was going to be disappointed with the photos I took because I forgot to switch to my wide angle lens. All these photos were taken with my telephoto lens but I really like them. They captured it pretty well.

Later in the week when the kids came up Jordan and I paid another visit to the park. It was much warmer that day. That is also when we fed the chickadees out of our hands. I'd like to visit this forest in the summer. I bet it is equally at beautiful then.