Bernheim Arboretum October 28, 2015.

Bernheim Arboretum is located one mile off of I-65 about fifteen to twenty miles south of I-265 (Louisville).  It might be quicker to take I-71 a couple miles further to I-264.  It looks shorter but there's probably more traffic.  It took less than two hours to get there from downtown Cincinnati, so it can still be considered a Day Hike.  I stopped here on my way to Cave City and Mammoth Cave National Park.  Cave City is less than 1 1/2 hours south of Bernheim and is in the Central time zone, so with the time change I got from Bernheim to my motel in Cave City in fifteen minutes.  In other words, if you are going to Mammoth Cave you might as well stop at Bernheim for an hour.  I stayed longer, and here is what I did.

First off is a stop at the Visitor Center.. This is obvious, but even if you didn't have to stop to get a map or use the facilities, you would want to stop for architectural reasons:  It is a really cool building.  I didn't take my own pictures but you can see some on their website above.  You can kill some time inside the building looking and learning.  There are also some short (less than 1 mile) trails that start from here.  I started on the Two Ponds Loop behind the Visitor Center.  In addition to the obvious two ponds, this trail goes through the Arboretum's holly collection.  It is said that the hollies are at their best in December.  The fruits of the hollies are various hues of orange and red and look like ornaments on Christmas trees.  I'll add a December trip to Bernheim to my bucket list.

Fall color at Mac's Lake.

After walking through the thirty or forty or howevermany different holly cultivars I crossed Visitor Center Drive and hiked the Nursery Loop along Mac's Lake and eventually through the Edible Garden near the Research Center.  There are some reflection benches (as prolific guidebook author Johnny Molloy calls them) along Mac's Lake where you can sit and ponder the mysteries of the universe or stare at your map and plan your day.  That is where I decided that I would save the forest trails along Forest Hill Drive for last and would see the sights along Arboretum Way first.

First stop was Big Prairie Overlook which has a view the entire length of the prairie that occupies most of the interior of the oval formed by Visitor Center Drive and Arboretum Way.  This would be a better view in the summer.  Next up was Guerilla Hollow Loop off of Guerilla Hollow Road.  It was good to get in actual woods and hike up real hills for a brief 1.2 mile break.  Then it was back to the arboretum.

Japanese horsechestnut - Aesculus turbinata

When I got out of my car at the Sun & Shade Loop this was the first thing that I saw.  I had no idea what kind of tree it was and had to walk over and look at the nameplate on it.  This .75 mile trail connects to the 1.3 mile Lake Nevin Loop.  About  two-thirds of the trail is "Sun" and is individual specimen trees (like the one above) with the other third being in the "Shade" of the forest.



If you start the Lake Nevin Loop off of the Sun & Shade Trail you would have entered stage right.  The bird sitting on the branches in the middle of the lake did not move during the hour plus that I was there.  The entrance road is along the far shore of the lake.  This picture was taken from the Sunset Amphitheater.  Continuing on to the left there is a boardwalk over a section of the lake where they have attempted to recreate the Cypress/Tupelo swamp that was found in this area before the landscape was altered for agriculture.

 

When they first planted this swamp they didn't protect the trees from beaver and they lost all of the trees.  They replanted the swamp with fence around the trunks of the trees.  The baldcypress seem to be doing really well; the black gum have been slower to establish.  I continued hiking around the lake (and got to witness a coyote chasing a deer in and out of the woods west of the lake), walked through plantings by the Garden Pavilion and the Quiet Garden, past the magnolias and conifers and back to the remainder of the Sun & Shade Trail.  It is time for the Forest Trails.

 The Canopy Tree Walk is the feature attraction of the Forest Trails.  It is a deck that goes straight out while the ground drops off into the valley.  At the end of the deck you are 75 feet above the ground, even with the tops of nearby trees, and with an unimpeded view of the valley in front of you.







There are seven trails along Forest Hill Drive.The Elm Lick Trail is five miles long, the others are two miles or less.  The only ones that I have hiked are the Fire Tower Loop (sadly, the fire tower is fenced off) and High Point Loop.  Looking at the map it is easy to see that these are the least interesting of the trails.  I will plan my next trip better so that I can experience all that Bernheim Arboretum has to offer.  Sorry for sounding like a commercial but that seemed like a good way to end this post.