Exercise Guide: St. Joe Nature Area

This is NOT an in-person, group event.

This is one of our set of Exercise Guides, trying to help and encourage you to get out to enjoy nature.

Thanks to Amanda Sweetman for alerting us to these trails!

St. Joe Nature Area has some beautiful trails along the Huron River as it winds past the St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor campus. It also has an area of prairie grasses.

Notably, St. Joe also has some trails we recommend avoiding due to unmaintained stairs. While they are passable, they are not for the casual stroller. For this reason, we provide a rather detailed map and commentary.

The map in the first picture has trail markers numbered 2-13 to match the maps available at the trailhead and at some of the marked intersections. It has additional markers that are described below.

The trailhead we recommend is #9. It is in the parking lot at the address in the "Location" section of this event. We recommend going from 9 to 8 to 10, then out to 'A' or somewhat past it and back to 10. This trail runs atop a narrow rise in the river bank that is quite cool. You will see the high banks of the river rising on one side, with the Huron on the other. If you go far enough, you'll see an old VW Beetle carcass. (Note: the map posted at the trailhead, shown in the 2nd picture below, indicates there are different trails from 9 to 10 and 9 to 8; that map is wrong - the trail is 9 to 8 to 10. The trailhead map is also incorrect about there being a trail from 7 to 10.)
After returning to 10 to 8, go to 7, to 6 to 11. If you want more woods along the river bank, go out to 13 and back to 11. From 11, go out to 12 to enter the prairie. If you want to explore the eastern part of the trail system (see further comments below), you can follow the trail that heads southeast through the prairie. If you are only doing the western trails, return to 9 by either 6 to 7 (our preferred route) or up to 2 and return to the parking lot along the paved path.
If you looked up on the high river bank while approaching point 'A', you might have noticed an observation platform. The platform is at point 'B' on our map, reachable along a side spur of the B2B trail.

We do not recommend the trail from 5 to 4 until some maintenance work has been done. It has a set of stairs in disrepair at 'D'. The trail is quite muddy approaching and beyond 4. These areas are passable, but not recommended for the casual walker.

The prairie trail going SE from 12 is interesting. Toward the SE end of it, it runs in the treeline between the prairie/wetland and the railroad. The turn to get to marker #4 is not completely obvious. This route is an easier walk than taking the trail between #5 and #4.

Beyond 'G' there is a small dam and spillway. Just after you pass the spillway, a powerline come across the river from the dam and turns south. There is a trail under the powerline that can take you through some more woods to The Farm at St. Joe. While interesting, this trail might be difficult for the casual stroller to follow in some places.

When you return to #4, the path from 4 to 2 is up the dirt ramp on the left; the path to 5 is just to the right of the ramp - a barely visible opening in along the left of the phragmites. While the route from 4 to 2 is not particularly attractive, it is wide, flat, and dry - an easy walk. There is a small observation platform along the way, just after #3.

The path from 'E' to 'F' involves a set of stairs that are worse than those at 'D'.

It appears that, some years ago, one could go from 10 to 13 on a trail. However, the boardwalk that used to be there is completely collapsed and there is a large area of mud at 'C' that likely cannot be passed without damage to flora along the riverbank.
A bigger set of pictures is at https://johnmetzler.smugmug.com/Parks/St-Joes-Nature-Area/20201123-St-Joes-Nature-Area