Yesterday visited another haunt of my youth, and it was nice to see a crowded parking lot at a natural area--the National Park label seems to have increased traffic, which might be bad in the short term, but good in the long run, as far as future sensitivity to natural areas. This area is between Cleveland and Akron. It's a nice area of sandstone ledges and cliffs, but without a river flowing through it like the Gorge. Many nice trees, a lot of hemlocks, here are a few pictures:

Cucumber magnolia, 9'5''x122'

  
Tuliptree,11'5''x129'

 

These trees were only 20' from each other, at the base of sandstone ledges'

There was a nice stand of skunk cabbage, with a layer of spicebush above:



And finally, the most curious find---Carolina hemlock, a reproducing population, on a rock ledge area of the park--trees of mixed sizes and ages, very much naturalized. The largest I measured was 3'+cbh and 50' tall. I reported on these trees several years ago, but had no photos to post to substantiate. Here are a couple of pics:

 


And here is a link to the album if photos don't embed as they should: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/571503592NFVeIK

Steve