A Sublime Sunday at the Quarry

For this week's #sublimesunday, as inspired by @c0ff33a, we returned to the abandoned rock quarry near our home. Long abandoned and taken control of by the Mississippi River Valley Conservancy, the area is a prairie restoration project. The idea is that through controlled burns and weed control, invasive plants can be snuffed out and native plants can return to the prairies.

Fortunately it wasn't sunny again; if the sun had been out, heat indices easily would have cleared 100F here. We took advantage of the clouds, a bit of a breeze, and enjoyed one of our favorite hikes in the area.

It's a very special place...as always, there is a pristine serenity that hangs in the air as you walk through the larger fields and open spaces.

Then of course there is always the old quarry wall. I have no idea when these walls were last excavated, but I'm happy they quit when they did. Otherwise, this area would have been even more destroyed by the miners.

For a #sublimesunday hike, it's the perfect place to visit year-round. Although to be honest, seeing the native wildflowers is our favorite reason to visit. The area had a controlled burn through it two months ago, and reforestation is already flying along. Life always finds a way!

With a snack and water break in about 3/4ths of the way through, it was back to the city for the rest of the day. It's nice to have something like this literally five minutes away from our home.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my #sublimesunday share! I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend too!