What we’re about
While we are excited to be meeting you outdoors again, we encourage you to also take time to work for environmental and racial justice.
Some resources for social justice and the outdoors:
• From Outrage to Justice by national Sierra Club director Michael Brune
• Public lands in the United States: A curriculum
• How to Be An Ally In The Outdoors
• The Toxic Intersection of Racism and Public Space
• Recreating in Color: Promoting Ethnic Diversity in Public Lands
• Dear white people, please read ‘White Fragility’
The Sierra Club is the largest and oldest (founded in 1892) environmental organization in the world. Our mission is to get people outside to enjoy the natural world leading to their understanding and desire to protect it for our families and for our future
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Nature in Michigan - Photo tours of SE Michigan parks and nature areasLink visible for attendees
A chronological listing of older hikes: Click here
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We present an ongoing series of photo-tours of parks and natural areas in SE Michigan.
See below for some instructions on using some of the features of the photo galleries, including how to zoom on pictures, see camera-settings, and so on.
This Event Page is a way for you to sign up to be notified whenever a new photo tour is posted. If you RSVP to "attend" this outing, every time a new photo tour is posted, you will receive an e-mail telling you about the posting. You will only receive these e-mails if you RSVP to attend this event and have your Meetup account set to notify you about comments in your upcoming Events.
Make sure you look through the Comments section - many of the photo tours are linked there and all future additions will be added via "Comments".
If you have or want to create photo tours of hikes you'd like to share, contact John via messaging on here. If you have photos from any of the parks for which we have posted Exercise Guides, please RSVP to the Exercise Guide and post some photos on those "events" as well.
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Instructions for viewing pictures on Smugmug:
To view photo tour, simply click the link below. It should open a new tab on your browser, showing the gallery. Click the first picture and it will enlarge to nearly fill your screen.
On the far right of the screen, on the horizontal centerline, is a right-arrow; click it to move to the next picture. A similar arrow is on the far left, to move to the previous picture.
Along the upper left side of the screen is a series of icons; the 3rd from the top is 3 horizontal lines; click it and the info about the picture will display - Title indicates the park where it was taken, the Caption identifies the plant or might have a "Mystery plant #"), then a bunch of photographer-geek information about lens, shutter speeds, etc. In some galleries, there will be a map showing where the picture was taken.
If you have clicked the Info icon, click the picture once and the information section of the screen (the stuff to the left of the picture that showed when you clicked the Info icon) disappears. Click the picture again and it will load a higher-resolution version (zoomed in) that you can click-and-drag to move around and view details of the picture.
When the icons are showing on the left side of the screen, the next to the bottom icon is a down arrow - click it to download a full-resolution copy of the picture.
NOTE: The photos on John's Smugmug account are available for download for your own, NON-COMMERCIAL USE, free of charge. If you want prints, feel free to download and print at home, at your favorite print shop, or use Smugmug's printing service (their service and quality are excellent). - Exercise Guide Guide - links to all our exercise guidesLink visible for attendees
These "events" are NOT in-person outings. They are guides to aid and encourage you to get out on your own or with others.
Here is a map showing the locations of all of our guides
As of 2/1/2023, we have 25 of them:
Bird Hills - Kuebler Langford - Barton Nature Areas
Cherry Hill Nature Preserve
Draper-Houston Preserve
Hewen's Creek Park
Indian Crossing Trails
Johnson Preserve - Lillie Park South
LeFurge Woods - Superior Greenway
Leonard Preserve
Marshall - Freeman Nature Areas
Matthaei Botanical Gardens
Montibeller Park
Nichols Arboretum
North Bay Park
Parker Mill County Park
Pinckney SRA, Pickerel Lake Loop
Pittsfield Preserve
Saginaw Forest
Scio Woods Preserve
Sharon Mills Park - Nan Weston Preserve
Stinchfield Woods
St. Joe Nature Area
The Bluffs Nature Area
Waterloo SRA, Bog and other Discovery Center trails
West Lake Preserve
Whitmore Lake Preserve