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| Autumn colors line the forest at Woodland Dunes Nature Center and Preserve. |
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| Conifer Trail map. Click for larger version. |
The 0.5-mile Conifer Trail at Woodland Dunes Nature Center and Preserve located near the great lake between Manitowoc and Two Rivers. Entirely wooded now, it makes for a great autumn hike.
To reach the trailhead, from Manitowoc take Wis. Hwy. 42 north toward Two Rivers. Turn left/north onto Columbus Street and left/west onto Wis. Hwy. 310. If in Two Rivers, take Hwy. 310 west toward Interstate 43. Immediately after Columbus Street, turn right/north into the preserve’s nature center and park there. To reach the trailhead, head south alongside Columbus Street; a sign identifies the trailhead, about two blocks from the nature center, on the road’s west side.
The looping trail follows two ancient beach ridges – elevated areas of sand and sediment swept there by waves. It crosses a swale – a low-lying area – between the ridges.
But how can there be beach ridges when Lake Michigan is more than a half-mile away?
These are ancient beach ridges and swales, remnants from a time with Lake Michigan was larger. In fact, it wasn’t exactly Lake Michigan then but Lake Nipissing.
As the heavy glaciers retreated some 10,000 years ago, the depressed crust of North America rebounded. The result was higher levels in Lake Nipissing, which is basically today’s Lake Michigan, except 30 feet higher. This inundated low-laying land to the lake’s east and south. Breaking waves bulldozed the lake’s sandy bottom, creating a series of parallel underwater ridges and troughs.
Gradually water drained from Lake Nipissing, and the shoreline retreated. As it did, those underwater ridges and troughs became above water sand dunes and swales. Plants common to beach dunes kept these ridges and depressions in place. Over the centuries, shrub carr replaced the dune plants, paving the way for forests to take root and grow.
Today, a mixed hardwood-conifer forest covers the Conifer Trail’s beach ridges and swale. Signs along the trail point out the different types of trees, with the hardwoods consistently mainly of beech, sugar maple, basswood, red and white oak.
That makes for a splendid autumn display – the bronze of American beech, the yellows, oranges and reds of sugar maple, the brown of red oak and the scarlet of white oak, all mixed with the olive leaves of basswood and evergreen needles of the conifers.
The beech trees are particularly interesting as they primarily grow in hardwood forests along Lake Michigan and are absent in most of the rest of Wisconsin. The American beech grows up to 60-75 feet high and boasts a broad, oval canopy. They prefer organically rich, acidic, loamy soils, common along Lake Michigan.
After completing the loop, walk left/north along Columbia Street and return to the nature center.
