Door County Land Trust Nature Preserves

Bay Shore Blufflands Nature Preserve

This park was the first place we tried out the Seek app, and it taught us a ton about the plants and insects we saw here. Our most vivid memory was seeing not 1 but TWO Monarch caterpillars!!

Bear Creek Nature Preserve

When we first got here, we didn't see why it was called Bear Creek because it just looked like a field, but we soon discovered a path leading down the hill and into the forest where we DID find a creek! Saw some water striders in the creek, but back on the hill we had seen a couple of Bobolinks! An older couple who knew the family who sold the property to the Door County Land Trust told us on our way out of the preserve that they saw THREE Bobolinks.

Legacy Preserve at Clay Banks

This one is a hidden gem, and it definitely gets prettier the further in you go. It starts at the top of a hill and leads down into a field that leads to a beach. Such a gorgeous view of Lake Michigan! Our Seek app captured some interesting plant life and taught us about the Meadow Fritillaries we saw everywhere (butterflies)!

Lautenbach Woods Nature Preserve

This was where we first saw and heard an ovenbird! They're super tiny and have iron lungs! We also saw our first looper moth caterpillar inching its way up a tree next to a common green darner!

Three Springs Nature Preserve

This one has a beatiful view of a pond and we heard a lot of really loud crows that wanted to chat with us! There was a creepy barn that we investigated, but on the way back we really enjoyed listening to and watching all the black-capped chickadees and nashville warblers in the trees next to the path.

Domer-Neff Nature Preserve and Bird Sanctuary

Surprised we didn't notice this one when we first visited the Stavkirke Church! We heard a LOT of blue jays and robins, a few cardinals, not exactly what we expected for one termed a "bird sanctuary". That said, we enjoyed the path and saw some really cool fall web worms, which kinda looked like cotton candy straight out of a Goosebumps book (a bunch of worms wriggling around in a web cone on a branch). It was also just nice to revisit the church, and we were the only ones there!

Little Lake Nature Preserve

This one was really hard to find, so we ended up just going to Little Lake itself, which we think is on the edge of the nature preserve. The actual preserve we think might be behind the Jacobsens Museum next to the lake, but we had already left by the time we thought to check there. We saw huge millipedes, a woolly caterpillar and some fish. We also met a grandpa and his grandkids and they told us we should check out Jill's Park up the road, which we did! And it had a great view of the water, similar to other cliff views in Door County.

Detroit Harbor Nature Preserve

By far the most poorly maintained nature preserve in the Door County Land Trust system! We barely made it 100 feet into the preserve before the trail disappeared amongst thick brush and tall grasses, with fallen trees and branches littering the path. They seriously need a weed whacker out there. That said, it was morbidly enjoyable in a creep kind of way. We didn't stay very long.

Richter Community Forest Nature Preserve

This one took a while to find, but it was nicely maintained and we heard a red-breasted nuthatch here for the first time! It sounded like it was laughing at us while we were exhausted from going to 3 other nature preserves in the same day.

Heins Creek Nature Preserve

This was a nice little half-mile loop through various types of terrain, including quiet forest and sandy dunes. Towards the end of the loop, we found ourselves opening our Merlin app to capture almost 10 different birds singing at the same time! We also found the dried-up creek for which the preserve was named, and it was blocked off to protect against erosion.

Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Nature Preserve

We saw a ton of mushrooms at this one, of all different shapes, sizes, and colors! Lots of yellows and oranges, but also the typical white mushrooms you might expect. More sandy dunes here than at Heins Creek, plus a view of the ship canal for which this preserve is named! Next time we might go find the spot where we can view the lighthouse from the preserve.

Ephraim Nature Preserve at Anderson Pond

Kangaroo Lake Nature Preserve

Oak Road Nature Preserve

White Cliff Nature Preserve