the Way of the Turtle

1 Mile Walk at Saratoga Spa State Park
Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Well, that was a disappointment overall... between the park map and my copy of ECOS's Natural Areas of Saratoga County I had high hopes for the wetland trail at Saratoga Spa State Park, especially since I've never been there in warm weather. The trail description talked about a pond with a viewing blind and an overlook with a view of a heron rookery, all of which sounded pretty cool.

What we found instead was a very overgrown trail with plenty of bugs (well, that was no great surprise.) The pond was nice - I surprised a green heron when I stepped up onto the platform, and he flew off across the pond squawking and continued to squawk the whole time we were there. But there really wasn't much else to see, so we made our way back to the overlook, which turned out to be the top of an old landfill. We could see the trees off in the distance but it doesn't look like the herons have been there for years... there weren't even any old nests in sight.

On the way out we startled a deer and spent a few moments watching her... but overall this definitely wasn't one of the more memorable walks we've taken over the past week or so, and definitely not a spot I feel any need to return to.

JMH