Nature's Railroad Station

Did you ever see something in the distance, and then want to get a closer look? At the end of my post yesterday, I showed you a far away structure, but I didn't know what it was. All I could do when I first saw it was to speculate as to what it might be.

The first thing that came to my mind was that it looked like railroad tracks. Railroad tracks seem to be coming up a lot for some reason. I'm not the only one thinking of them. I also heard there is a new nature preserve being built close to me, over the site of some old tracks. It seems that thoughts of railroads tracks and nature trails go hand in hand.

Well, as I got closer to the mysterious structure, I realized that my dream of seeing a tiny train with a leprechaun conductor was only that, just a dream. As logic took over my mind, I knew that there were no tracks anywhere within miles of this area, not even tiny ones.

This place does have the relaxed look of an old, country railroad station though, doesn't it? It's a wooden platform, with a nice little bench to relax on while you wait. You imagine you can almost feel the distant rumble of the next arriving train, as you listen to the peaceful sounds of the happy birds all around.

But wait, it's not really a train station is it? I can dream though, can't I? After all, that's what a nice, quiet place like this is for. Walking these trails begs for wandering feet, and wandering thoughts. Perfectly relaxing.

But what is this place really for? Well, of course I can tell you the answer to that. It's the crossroad to several other paths, and beginning of a viewing area for a huge area of wetlands. The wetlands features many animals, including raccoons, turtles, frogs, ducks, and many more animals and plant.

This place is another nice walkway. I love places like this. These walkways like this give us great feelings of peace. This one gives off an almost lonely feeling without it feeling bad at all. The walk to the end brings so much anticipation of what might be out there.

Would I really feel like I was all alone out here, when I get to the end? Would that feeling be a sad one, or would it bring joy and a feeling of harmony with nature? Of course, you already know the answer to these questions, don't you?

Ahhh, here at the end of the walkway, there is another bench to relax on, or you can go take a look at the information sign to find out what to look for out in the wetlands. These signs are scattered throughout this nature preserve, the same as at Carpenter Lake.

There are very similar signs at both parks. I wonder if they were designed by the same people. Whoever they were, they did a good job on both of these nature preserves. I hope they do the next in a similar way. Oh, wait! Stop! Enough of this rambling, you want to see what's on the other side of the railing. You want to see the wetlands, right? Here we go!

The payoff! This is what I saw when I stood at the edge of the railing. This huge wetland area is supposed to be home to all sorts of creatures. It might still be too early in the year for much activity yet, but I saw a few things.

There was some activity under the water, that I couldn't identify. Hopefully I'll figure it out when I go back. There we also a couple of ducks swimming around in the distance. I did get the pictures of them, but they were far away, and the shots were blurry. I've had pictures of ducks before anyway. Go look at them.

While this wasn't a railroad, it was still an interesting place that will only get better as the days go by. As time goes on here, maybe I'll finally get a picture of a turtle. I like turtles, and so should you. What will I see next? I don't have a clue.