Date: 05/02/2021 – Distance: 1.0 mi – Elapsed Time: 0.5 hr – Ascent: 72 ft – Descent: 75 ft – Difficulty: Easy Base Camp
Punderson State Park east of Cleveland, Ohio has the largest and deepest kettle lake in Ohio. Kettle lakes were formed when large chunks of ice from the last glacier broke off when the glacier was receding, and formed a large hole which filled with water. Many of them has since filled with sediment and vegetation and are bogs now, but Punderson is still a lake. There is a decent sized campground there, hiking trails, disc golf, and a very stately lodge which is a tudor style mansion, with rooms to rent, a restaurant, and both an indoor and outdoor pool. There are also cabins near the lodge.
I was using this park as a basecamp for the weekend while I hiked nearby parks. I did some exploring of this place as well.
The original site I booked onliine, #189, was small.
And the fire was a mudpit.
Luckily there were plenty of sites still available and I was able to switch to site #157, which is much better.
Plenty of space for an RV or 2 cars.
And was dry, with lots of space for multiple tents as well.
This was actually the neighbor site, but you can see the lake from here.
And of course there were some wildflowers on the site. Trout Lily.
Cutleaf Toothwort.
Getting the Friday night fire going.
Tulip Poplar. The petal is actually a sepal from the flower buds which are just breaking way up in the tree tops.
Lightning Bug.
Maple.
This one is tough.
Cottonwood leaf from last year.
Oak leaf and Maple leaf from last year.
Maple leaf with flowers.
Quartz pebbles tells me the geology of the area is Sharon Sandstone conglomerate.
Basswood?
Alder? I need a better tree guide.
The sun is setting.
Getting settled in.
In the morning, I stopped by the lake and caught this cool mist.
Near the small docks.
Sunday morning, I took a morning hike around the lodge.
It’s a tudor style mansion.
Good view of the lake from the back of the lodge. The campground is on the far side in the center.
Back of the lodge.
The indoor pool is in there.
There is a trail leading to the lake from the lodge.
There are quite a few trails here actually.
The trail leads to a boardwalk.
Lots of vegetation. Some of these will flower.
The campground is on the opposite side.
The boardwalk follows along the lake.
It’s pretty long too.
Lots of good viewing opportunities for plants and wildlife.
There are a few spots to relax.
Those are the cabins on top of the hill.
The boardwalk turns.
Lots of Lily Pads.
Then the boardwalk turns away from the lake and toward the cabins.
I believe this is a type of Willow tree.
Wild Strawberry.
Coming back to the lodge now. This is the outdoor pool.
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