A Visit to Hartwick Pines State Park

Hartwick Pines State Park is just north of Grayling, Michigan.  It is the largest state park in northern lower Michigan.  It is also has the last virgin forest in the Lower Peninsula.  It is the fifth largest State Park Overall.

 The sign that welcomes you to the park.  It looks like pretty much every other State Park sign.

 The Park is named after the Hartwick Family.  It is dedicated to Major Edward Hartwick (more on him later).

 An elevated walkway that leads you to the visitor's center.

 There were quite a few icicles hanging from the center.

 There is a nice little museum inside.  They had this stuffed badger.

 And a stuffed weasel.

 This uniform belonged to Major Hartwick.  One of his ancestors has a college in New York named after him.  There is also a town in New York named after the same ancestor.

 Edward was born in St. Louis, Michigan.  He went to the United States Military Academy in 1889 and graduated from there with high honors.  He was appointed a 2nd Lt. in the 4th Cavalry and transferred to the 9th Cavalry Regiment (which was nicknamed the Buffalo Soldiers).  He ended up in Cuba for the Spanish-American War.  After the War, he ended up back in Grayling, resigned his comission and went into Lumber and Banking.  Eventually he ended up in Detroit.  After the US entered World War I, he volunteered for duty and was comissioned a Major with the 20th Engineers.  He died in France from meningitis, he was buried there but then his remains were removed to Woodlawn Cemetary in 1920.

In 1927, his wife bought 8,000 acres of land, including the last 85 acres of virgin pine in the Lower Peninsula.  Shortly after, she donated the land to the State and the State Park was born.

 A stuffed fox.

 A stuffed turkey.

 A porcupine.

 A snowy owl (in case you couldn't read the sign).

 My friend was trying to get a shot where he could stop the motion.  The ranger said that we could feed the birds by hand.  So I tried it.  This was probably my favorite picture from that.

 Sadly, I didn't have enough shutter speed as they would fly away at the sound of the shutter.

 Another shot of the bird.

 Then I moved to get some shots from the bird feeder.

 A stuffed wolf.

 Some of the pines.

 More of the pines.

 The road leading out of the park.

 As we were driving, I noticed this spot and told Chris to stop.  I think it was worth it.

 Other pines.

 A device used to move logs.

 M-93 in front of Hartwick Pines

 Another angle of the logging thing.

 Other trees.

One last shot of the logging thing before leaving.