Well, I mean, I kinda am moving to Southern Illinois at an undisclosed point in the near future, but after visiting Piney Creek Ravine I want to move there even sooner. Recently, the Lincoln Land Environmental Club took a tour down to this part of Southwestern Illinois as our first major field trip of the year. While sadly only a few people could make it, we had a great time!
After a lengthy and mildly confusing drive through tiny one-lane roads in the middle of nowhere, we arrived at Piney Creek Ravine, named for its popuations of the rare Shortleaf Pine trees. Once in the parking lot, it's a full half-mile walking along a grassy lane between farmfields back to the preserve.
While in the middle of nowhere driving, we spotted a Pileated Woodpecker and several White-tailed Deer ran across the road in front of us. After parking the enormous van we had rented, we hiked back into the preserve. A juniper-covered glade with an understory of mosses greeted us at lane's end:
The number of moss species in this area must be quite large, as I saw dozens of different types:
We hiked down into the canyon, where the lighting was poor for photographs and the signs said stay on the trail. As I was with a group, I listened to the signs, albeit reluctantly.
Along the canyon's walls, we found this population of the parasitic plant Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana) on this small beech tree (Fagus grandiflora). I've seen Beechdrops before, but never in these numbers. There were thousands on this beech tree and the others nearby.
Several rocky cliffs opened up into a wider creek, full of small stones. This looks like ideal salamander habitat, and I checked a bit, but I didn't see any. There are Copperheads known from this area, so caution is always advised when flipping logs and rocks to look for anything.
One of the things Piney Creek is most famous for is its Native American rock art, some 1000- 1500 years old. There was also plenty of modern rock art, too:
One of the most distinct Native American pieces was this figure with a bow:
There were also some chiseled initials done by people 100 years ago. How long must graffiti remain before it becomes historic, I wonder? It's a good question.
Some of the pioneers had done quite an excellent job carving their initials:
There's hundreds of Native American rock carvings and paintings here, many on this rock wall but many more hidden in undisclosed locations throughout the preserve.
Piney Creek could also be known as Ferny Creek- there were plenty of ferns! There's a few state-listed fern species from this ravine complex, including the Bradley's Spleenwort (not pictured). I don't know what species this is, but it was far too common to be one of the listed ones:
While there, I found this fern, which might be the hoped-for Bradley's Spleenwort (Asplenium bradleyi). It most likely isn't that fern, but the sandstone cliff habitat seems correct for the species.
Descending back into the canyon, we followed the creek down through the ravine. A group of Boy Scouts behind us, who were probably the best behaved troop of Scouts I've ever met, had their guide playing Native American pipes. In the silence of the canyon, it was quite haunting.
As the last notes of the pipes died away, I stumbled across these unusual leaves, and my heard skipped a beat in sheer happiness, for they were ORCHIDS:
These are the leaves of the Putty-Root Orchid (Aplectrum hyemale) which prodcues leaves in the fall that grow through winter and then die back in the spring. It's an unusual lifestyle, but it seems to work for the plants, and there were quite a few.
Each leaf blends in quite well on the forest floor. Putty-root Orchids are among the more common species of orchids, but finding them in their preferred habitat of old-growth lowland forests is hard.
We then walked onwards, and I found a few more orchid leaves, like the one above. We found and lost the trail intermittently, so for the most part we just stuck to the side of the creek. In the water, we found this dead grub, alongside some aquatic moss:
It may not look that big, but this grub was the size of my thumb. It's supposed to be from some sort of Scarab Beetle. Earlier, we had seen the Pileated Woodpecker, and we had been wondering what Pileated Woodpeckers ate to get so big. Now, we know!
Mats of liverworts grew along the creek in this section, on par with some of the growths I've seen in Matthiessen or Starved Rock State Parks.
In a drier section of the rock, we found these unusual, pipelike wasp nests:
Also along the creek grew mats of mosses. Sphagnum Moss is known from this area, but I didn't identify any. I find mosses fascinating, but not easily identifiable.
I also found this late blooming aster (Symphyotrichum sp.?) as we continued downstream.
Several small fish, mostly minnows and sunfish, lived in the wider and deeper parts of the creek. However, I spotted something else in the water, too:
This is a Logperch (Percina caprodes) an uncommon fish of clear, gravelly streams like this one. I had never seen one before. We eventually turned away from the creek and into the woods:
As we climbed uphill, I found the strangest object of the year:
This is the Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus), a fungus seen during late summer and fall in beech woods like this one. Apparently it is edible, though I'm disinclined to eat it.
The woods were beautiful, golden and green. However, no sign of pines was seen.
We found some more unusual fungi, but we all felt a bit cheated by not seeing any Shortleaf Pines yet. This preserve is named Piney Creek because of these trees! I began to complain about this, and just as I finished my rant someone else pointed this out:
Ironic, isn't it? We walked downhill on a rocky slope, with moss all over the ground:
We also came across more Lion's Mane fungus:
Shortleaf Pines(Pinus echinata), the namesake trees of Piney Creek, are among the rarest trees in Illinois, State- Endangered and only known from two locations in this state. This is one, and the other is the famous Larue-Pine Hills area in Shawnee National Forest, with the most reptiles and plants of any preserve in the entire state. I will go there as soon as I can.
These pine trees are far more common in the Ozarks. However Piney Creek Ravine, along with much of this small strip of Illinois, holds much Ozark flora and fauna found nowhere else in Illinois.
Indeed, with its rolling hills, clear streams, and stony ravines, Piney Creek is said to resemble the Ozarks more than the state it belongs to. Due to some deficiency in my vacation planning, I've never actually been to the Ozarks, but I will go as soon as I can manage to do so.
Along this section of the creek, the bedrock was exposed in huge chunks.
Rock Polypody ferns (Polypodium virginianum) grew on a few of the boulders. These are among the few epiphytes in Illinois, able to grow on trees and rocks. They are also known as Resurrection Ferns, as they die back during droughts and "resurrect" during rains.
Walking down the canyon felt as if we had stepped into the set of a Western.
To be honest, it's hard to describe this area in words. At the time, I questioned aloud whether I'd died and gone to heaven, and considering how scenic this spot is, it's still a fair question.
According to the geologists, this ravine was a runoff for the meltwaters of glaciers. Whatever the origin, this canyon was unlike any other I've ever visited.
At times, the water would be an inch or two deep, and in one or two spots it would be several feet.
Unusual holes and pockets of water seem to be quite common, like the one below. I assume there is some good scientific explanation for these, but to me the place seemed as if the rocks had been tossed and scraped haphazardly by some giant. And yet, for all that, it was still beautiful.
A couple of spots in this main canyon seemed as if they might end up as waterfalls during the spring.
Eventually, we continued down to near where we had entered the canyon. A group of Boy Scouts, the same group from before, had the following overhang pointed out to them within earshot of us. Apparently this overhang is an ancient rock shelter used by Native Americans:
Just as we were going to begin hiking back up, I spotted something in the leaves, and proceeded to get this terrible photo of the dry stem that I saw:
This is the stem of an Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora), a rare, leafless plant that is a myco-heterotroph. Apparently, it steals nutrients from the underground mycorrhizae fungi in old, healthy woods like these. Finding an Indian Pipe plant, even this seed-stem, is rare for me. This is only the second one I've ever found, and my first in all of Illinois! This is certainly a spectacular Fifth Orchid for this trip, and I cannot wait to return. Orchids, ancient history, rare plants, strange fungi, scenic canyons, and even a new fish or two- Piney Creek Ravine has it all!
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