Come along with me on a summer outing. We’ll drive up to our mountain forest and pasture land…
Plants & Fungi
Wondernose: What plant could be called “Nature’s Pizza Pan”?
Imagine a plant that bears huge leaves two yards/meters or more across!
Be an Alpine Giant for a Day
Dad, are you crazy? my son was probably thinking as our van rocked and shook in the 60-mile-an-hour gale…
Mushroom Search
Can you find and identify the mushrooms?
Covers, May 2025
A close-up look into a yellow lady’s slipper and the face of an upset Gray Crowned-Crane.
Exploring Nature, May 2025
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Visit vernal pools and listen to the various species of frogs and toads. Watch their vocal sacs. Look for tadpoles developing. Take a wildflower hike and...
Fool Me Once, Lady’s Slipper…
“Fool me once…BZZZZZZZ!” Bumblebee buzzed angrily as she whizzed past. As she bumbled on through the bracken fern and around the blueberry bushes, I think I heard her mumbling, “Why does everything have to have hardly any nectar and pollen?…”
End of the Trail, May 2025
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive These beautiful, rare snow trilliums are smaller than you think. They stand 3-4 inches (8 cm) tall. The flower is about the diameter of a quarter, to a...
Photograph the Series
One of the most rewarding mornings I’ve spent photographing wildflowers happened not because I photographed a lot of species, but rather because I took a series of photographs…
The Mushroom Hunt
“Let’s go on a mushroom hunt!” This crisp day is perfect for hunting mushrooms in our forest. I fill a cardboard box with knives, bowls, pens, paper, and, most importantly, our mushroom guide.
Creation Close-ups, April 2025
Trails and Tales contest honorable mention photos
Wondernose: What tree has dead bark that’s very useful to man?
Ordinarily, dead bark would be the part of a tree left rotting in the woods after the valuable parts have been harvested. Not so with our mystery tree. The bark gets harvested, and the rest of the tree is left standing!
Study Guide Puzzles, April 2025
Reinforce nature facts from the April issue with the Study Guide puzzles!
Peanuts in Pennsylvania?
I carefully shelled the 100 peanuts he had given me and planted them in the makeshift greenhouse on the south porch around three weeks before last frost… Last off all comes the best part…enjoying cheap peanuts.
It’s Spring!
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive “For lo, the winter is past…the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come.” (Song of Solomon 2:11, 12)Yes, spring needs an...