This week, Egidio hosts a challenge that invites us to take a walk in the woods. In his post, he mentions “forest bathing” as a term for immersing oneself in the woods. He writes, “So, this week’s challenge is about how you do forest bathing in your corner of the world. Let’s go into the woods.” You can read his entire post here.

Coincidentally, I’ve been introducing my grandson to photography, and a few weeks ago, we visited the only park big enough to hold a forest in Fargo. OK, so the forest isn’t that big, but its location along the Red River and the beautiful trees found along the short section of trail invite photographers. Lynn and I walk this trail at least once a year in the summertime.

The worm is in the water, and it’s time to settle in for a nap. The trail begins at the parking lot and roughly follows the river’s bend. At times, it’s pretty close to the river, and there are several places where the underbrush is open enough to find a spot along the river to fish or to just enjoy the day.

The Red River Valley, including the area around Fargo, North Dakota, is known for its floodplain forests. These areas are characterized by trees that can tolerate moist to wet soils and, in some cases, periodic flooding. Forests along the rivers are about all there are for forests in our state. There used to be many more elm trees in this forest, but Dutch Elm Disease has decimated the population of native elms. There are many ironwood, boxelder, and linden trees, but my favorite is the older cottonwood trees.

As we walked along, I felt someone was watching us. When I looked toward this gnarly old tree stump, I saw the pair of eyes that followed us as we walked along the path. This old cottonwood tree may have reached the century mark or even more before it could no longer bear its own weight and broke high on the trunk.

Virginia Creeper is a woody vine that sprawls along the ground as underbrush in Orchard Glen Park, but it can also climb trees, walls, or other structures. Though sometimes confused with poison ivy, the distinctive five-leaf structure easily differentiates it from the three-leaf structure of poison ivy.

Another common groundcover in the glen is the Virginia Waterleaf. We observed many clusters of bell-shaped flowers in bloom on the day of our visit to Orchard Glen. Google tells me it’s a common wildflower in moist, shaded areas of forests in the eastern and central US, including North Dakota. This stand was found along the path as it approached the river.

Gemini tells me that this blossom is likely a variety of wild rose known as Wood’s Rose. Wild roses are very common in natural areas, including woodlands, open fields, and along riverbanks, as is the case at Orchard Glen Park.

Another common flower we saw on our walk is this stand. Gemini identified it as Dame’s Rocket. After describing it thoroughly, the AI software went on to note, “While beautiful, it’s important to recognize that Dame’s Rocket is not native to North America. It was introduced from Eurasia as an ornamental plant and has since escaped cultivation. In many areas, including parts of the Midwest, it is considered an invasive species.”

As we concluded our walk in Orchard Glen, I surreptitiously captured a photo of Owen at work photographing this stand of Russian Olive bushes. When I learned of Egidio’s challenge, I told Owen that we would work on his images from this walk, and I would publish his favorites along with mine as part of the challenge.

Owen’s first photo is a shot of woodland leaves with a moss-covered fallen tree in the background. Grandpa showed Owen how to perform some basic editing tasks, and he “did the driving” in Luminar Neo. The one advanced feature I showed him how to use was creating a linear gradient on the left side to darken the image and draw the viewer’s eyes toward the leaves, his main subject.

When we went down to the river (by the woman fishing), Owen captured this photograph, and for this challenge, Owen performed some basic edits in Luminar Neo. At the time, the sky was cloudy and gray, so I showed him my collection of sky replacements, expecting him to pick a lovely, blue summer sky with puffy white clouds. When he saw the Milky Way night skies, though, he went an entirely different way, and I helped him darken the rest of the image to simulate night. In no time at all, I’ll probably be teaching him how to do Day-to-Night conversions a little more realistically. >grin< You can find these images and more in the gallery on my Flickr site in 2K HD and view photo metadata here.

Thanks to Egidio for scheduling this challenge that coincidentally fit one of my photo walks in early June with my grandson. Last week, SH was the guest host for the challenge, and I enjoyed seeing so many Quiet Hours photos that everyone submitted. Next week, Tina hosts, and her challenge will be posted at noon Eastern Time on Saturday. Be sure to follow her here so you don’t miss it. If you’d like to get started in sharing your own challenge responses, check here for more information.

John Steiner