A Secret Glacier Playground in Ann Arbor, Michigan

[@allonewordinlowercase8529]

As much as I love the science content, it's also really sweet just to see you & your husband running around, having adventures, enjoying nature together, taking it all in.

[@caseyczarnomski8054]

I grew up just outside of Ann Arbor in Salem. There's a gravel pit about a half mile east of Curtis Rd off 5 mile I used to ride my bike in all the time. When my family brought in gravel for our driveway we left it unpaved for a few years and I found all kinds of fossils of shells and coral to start my collection. I moved out to Oregon to live in the valley between the Coastal Range and the Cascades back in 98. The volcanic activity from the continental shelf forcing the seafloor under it creates so many amazing volcanoes and lava flows out here. There's been a lot of logging here, but there's still old growth forest left to explore.

[@jimdevilbiss9125]

You are such a great teacher. Not only do I learn more every presentation but I throughly enjoy your enthusiasm.

[@AlexisDahl]

Shucks, thank you!

[@robertflowers6621]

@@AlexisDahl Even your "shucks" is enjoyable to read!

[@jime19911]

I’ve lived in Ann Arbor for 20 years and never heard of this place and I haven’t heard anyone mention anything about it before. I knew Ann Arbor is so hilly because of glaciers from the ice age. Very cool video! Thanks for making it along with everything else you make.

[@AlexisDahl]

Thanks so much! I'm glad you could learn about it. It's a great spot. 🙂

[@repeat_defender]

I lived there for 20 years too, right there in that area! Somehow I never saw it either. Go check it out! I’m in Washington now so I can’t.

[@johnjunge6989]

The rocks in New York City Central Park has granite that is scared with the direction of the glaciers moved, plus left them on top of the ground. Great to walk too, just watch the bikes and joggers, they hate visitors getting in their way!

[@kza695]

I'm glad we're two years past those hard moments. Thank you for sharing and giving me a new place to explore.

[@andrewbrown9672]

I graduated from U of M and I visit Ann Arbor regularly. I did not know about this local resource. I appreciate how ironic it is that a place that can bring solace in the modern world is named Fox Science Preserve…. Thank you for all of your other informative MI videos as well! Say hi to Hank G for me - you guys are educational giants!

[@1999Valkyrie]

Hi Alexis: I'm a fairly recent subscriber, and I just want to say...I look forward to each of your videos the same way most folks look forward to having a great, tasty dessert after a meal. Each one is not only special with your smiling face and enthusiasm, but they're educational too. Heck, that's better than cherry pie any day! :) Thanks!!

[@andrewbrown9672]

I graduated from U of M and I visit Ann Arbor regularly. I did not know about this local resource. I appreciate how ironic it is that a place that can bring solace in the modern world is named ‘Fox’ Science Preserve…. Thank you for all of your other informative MI videos as well! Say hi to Hank G for me - you guys are educational giants!

[@michigannatureandwildlife6896]

I love this preserve, and have been visiting it since before it was “officially” opened. The birds and wildlife are every bit as interesting as the rocks - our daughter even picked this spot to bring their friends to explore for their 11th birthday party.

[@shooter575]

Love your stories. Some 50 years ago I started working construction for a stone mason. That got me interested in Michigan geology and the ice ages that changed it. The Defiance moraine that passes right through A2 NE to SW is where you see all the gravel pit still being used today. And yes I grew up in A2 and still close by.

[@stevekocinski383]

See stuff like this is fascinating. I was born in Chicago and grew up in its northern suburbs. Now my parents both were born and raised in the UP. Yoopers! A good part of my childhood (the 70's) was camping and going up to the UP every year. My dad was born in Alpha and my mom in Gaastra. We would camp at Bewabic state park. I love the UP and Michigan. If I went to that park I would leave my phone in the car and spend hours just walking around. Your channel has been a flood of old great memories! Thanks!

[@Activistami]

Stumbled on your channel yesterday and I'm super glad I did. I used to live right down the road from the fox science preserve and I haven't heard anyone else talk about it before. Your videos are great! I find history and geology of michigan super fascinating.

[@sheilafranklin186]

I always learn so much from your videos, Alexis. Thank you for making them so interesting. Its such a rush hearing more and more stories about this awesome state we live in.

[@xepherys]

I absolutely love your perspective on things and your sense of wonder. I've been tooling through your videos randomly this morning and they just keep making me smile. Thank you!

[@libbylandscape3560]

When you started out I thought this was the place I’d been to a few times in the early 70’s to picnic and draw, but then realized it wasn’t….but then Michigan’s so beautiful and this kind of (prairie-ish) landscape so prevalent that it’s part of my happiest memories. Discovering the geological history makes it that much better. Thanks. Love your video’s and enthusiasm.

[@jayf8308]

It's so nice to have a place to go to get away from buildings ,roads and power lines. Up her just on the east border of Flint we have a small but very cool nature preserve called Formar. I have visited there weekly for most of my 58 years that I have lived or worked in or around the area.

[@YeOldeTraveller]

Great little park. My wife and I found it a few years ago in winter. Thanks for the video.

[@CrankyPantss]

I never knew that place existed. Thanks for sharing this with us. I hope you’re feeling better. It’s been a very rough couple of years.

[@markmummey19]

I know it’s been 4 years ago but I love what you are doing sharing your videos with the world keep it up and update on some new projects 2024✌🏻

[@billxam2674]

I'm going to see the old rocks in the spring! Great local find.

[@tsepash]

I live less than 60 miles south of Fox Science Preserve and have NEVER heard of it. I am happy that KZbin decided to recommend this video to me (instead of the normal content that I have no interest in (what gives KZbin?)). Anyway, I was raised in Michigan and my heart will ALWAYS be there, regardless of where I live. My family goes to Ann Arbor fairly often but I stay behind because the shops and stuff they like to peruse, while awesome, are not really my thing. This place however, has really piqued my interest. Thank you for another great video and Go Blue!!

[@tender-warrior]

I needed a video like this right about now, everything is loud and, gosh, everything just happens so much. I can't go outside right now both due to the pandemic and due to the incredible amount of smoke in the air and the shots of y'all frolicking out in that beautiful place in the process of an ecological renaissance was really calming in a way I can't quite articulate. I am both super envious of your adventure and extremely grateful that you took the time to share it with us. :)

[@AlexisDahl]

Oh, man, thank you so much. That really means a lot. And the fires are so wild right now, goodness. I hope you're staying as safe as you can. How are things looking near you?

[@tender-warrior]

Not as bad as up north, but this is still probably the worst fire season I've ever experienced. There are fires burning both to the east and west of us, and the smoke is so thick you can barely see the mountains just to the north. I'm keeping safe, though, I'm staying inside as much as possible and I'm keeping my inhaler handy.

[@AlexisDahl]

@@tender-warrior Yikes! I'm so glad you're safe, but that's still so rough. Glad you're able to hunker down!

[@timschultz7755]

Just 5 miles from my house and I never heard of it. Looks like I'll have to plan a hike through this. Thanks

[@Bluebloods7]

Very cool place, been here several times with my kiddo - have pics of her at varying ages next to those massive boulders!

[@alfonsolopez2540]

I ABSOLUTELY love your stories.

[@sierrafoxtrotgolf3638]

You have such a pleasant demeanor and presentation. Thanks for such thorough education, wonderfully presented. I have removed all news and political pages from social media and seldom watch the news. I have found I'm a lot happier that way. I have also come to a couple realizations. 1st, for all my years of passionately arguing my political views I have likely never changed on mind or vote, but have stressed my self over it. So no more. 2nd, and more important, if you turn off the news and talk with real people you'll find that the world is a lot more harmonious than we're being lead to believe. Thanks for awesome and genuinely enjoyable videos.

[@cuddlepaws4423]

EXACTLY !!!! Don't give them the oxygen of publicity .

[@joedeshon]

You're one of my new favorite KZbinrs!

[@gordybishop2375]

Great story. Thank you for letting us know about it.

[@expertbrian8314]

I was born in Ann Arbor and lived there until I was 28. This is the first time I ever heard about the Fox Science Preserve. 😮

[@boblohr1836]

All of your episodes are extraordinary, however, this one was particularly so. Way back when I was in high school we had an earth science teacher that had about the same delivery and enthusiasm as you do. One day we visited an old unused gravel pit between Watervliet and Coloma, (Michigan) and he showed us many of the same things you did. I was enthralled! But that old gravel pit did not avoid development, sadly.

[@zackmorrison470]

Thank you for sharing that peaceful little corner of the world with us, and the history behind it! And you're right, we ALL need reminders of the persistence of Nature, and our small part in the MUCH bigger picture, and the Hope that comes from reflecting on that. This has been a rough year, and "we've" created a figurative AND literal "web" of systems which keep our attention focused on the problems, distracted from considering solutions, and too afraid (maybe) to take action. The result of all this fear and anxiety is that we get tangled in this "web" and it is hard to get ourselves out, take a deep breath, take a look around for ourselves, and get back some of that perspective! It has made a lot of people feel helpless and hopeless, but getting outside, to a quiet and ancient place like that, and then SHARING that with the rest of us helps break that cycle! Your video reminded me of all the quiet, ancient places I've been: deep in "the Bush" in Senegal as a Peace Corps Volunteer, Monasteries in Bhutan carved out of Himalayan cliffs, Petrified Forest National Park, the wildlife and biology Field Station at my undergrad alma matter of Hiram College in Ohio, the abandoned factories and neighborhoods of Youngstown Ohio. Even just all the unnamed woods, streams, marshes, and other places I've been where Nature was (and undoubtedly still is) just doing its thing, regardless of my presence or absence. Thank you for sparking all those memories, because I (like many others) have been pretty distracted this year! Keep up the good work! =)

[@AlexisDahl]

Thanks for such a thoughtful, kind comment, Zach! I'm so glad you enjoyed this - and thanks for sharing about some of your trips, too! Those sound like amazing places to visit, and I'm glad something in my video gave you space to think about them.

[@darickhibbert1624]

Michigan is the coolest State for all those reasons..and more...

[@DanielSmith-ez9ox]

Alexis, have you ever been to Rock Rapids on the Brevort River. It's a little tricky finding, but with a bit of perseverance, you can find it. It's a spot on the Brevort River where a shelf of rock makes for fast-moving water, forming rapids, especially in the spring when there is lots of water from snow melt and rain. The rapids are about three miles north of downtown Brevort in the U.P. on highway U.S.2, also known as "Hamburger Highway," a name I don't think needs any explanation. Check it out. It's quite pretty there.

[@joemeredith7665]

I never knew any of this. You are a great teacher. I love your videos.

[@davidhomer78]

I don't think I could ever understand squishy philosophy without some help. Thank you.

[@carlfitzpatrick5864]

I recently found fossils of sea plant life in Dickinson county in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The fossils are in sand stone and are cool to see since there is no limestone close by the closest limestone with fossils is just east of Gladstone Michigan about 60 miles away. I’m hoping to go there again this summer.

[@MichaelStoneRichard]

Awesome! I never knew that preserve was there and have driven past the area hundreds of times!

[@John_Ridley]

Neat, I've driven by there hundreds of times, and walked the trails around it but haven't stopped in before. I think I'll go over there this afternoon.

[@AlexisDahl]

That's awesome! If you ended up visiting over the weekend, I hope it was a lovely trip.

[@MargaretKolosky]

To help you to visualize the depth of a glacier you might need to go to Alaska and see the Mendenhall glacier and the Stewart glacier.

[@jerrysstories711]

Oh, wonderful! Much thanks, because I moved to zero-fun Dayton a year ago, and I'm always looking for interesting things to see on weekend getaways!

[@alfamaize]

And after seeing your video about the ejecta deposit in the UP, this video comes up and now I have a park to see on the north side of town. We've been by the park many times not having any idea that the Fox Science Preserve was even there. For sure a destination when the weather gets better.

[@nancyaustin9516]

Hah! In just the last few months I visited Fox Preserve for the first time-I’ve lived and worked in & around A2 for decades but never heard of it until this year. Apparently local schools bring classes out there all the time. Honestly, I’m not that much of a geology geek, but Lyndon Park South (near Chelsea) has a Kame trail with a nice example of the feature you’d expect to find there.

[@backdoor5993]

Glad you had a good escape from the tortures of reality! I often feel what you expressed just sitting in the woods around Cadillac and pondering what it all looked like one or two hundred years ago.

[@repeat_defender]

WHAT??? I must have passed by there hundreds of times on my way from Ann Arbor to Pickerel lake and I never noticed it!! Don’t they grow pumpkins in those fields next to there every year? I lived so close to there, my mind is blown that I missed these wonderful boulders.

[@kittty2005]

Well apparently I can't remember the train ride as I was 14 at the time, but it was the Agawa Canyon tour, but later went on a train ride through the canyon and we stopped at a town north of the canyon in Canada, a small town I believe it had a small airport the Algoma Central RR. was it's main connection, but my point is between the canyon and that town lies a flat nearly barren plain as far as you can see and about a half mile from the track is a MASSIVE boulder about 4 or 5 acres in size with a house and trees and grass and about 500 feet from the flat plain in elevation, it was fantastic, I hope it's still their for you to see.

[@grantboyer9769]

We found the Fox Science Preserve during the pandemic too! What a wonderful discovery. We have been getting into hiking more since the need to do more socially-distanced activities, and this was probably my favorite place that we found to explore. There is a path that leads up to the northern ridge, which provides a cool view of the quarry from high up. Definitely recommend it. Nowhere else in Michigan have I so profoundly felt the echo of Arizona, where my Dad lived when I was growing up.

[@AlexisDahl]

Ah, that's so exciting! I love hearing when people find that place. Also, that Arizona comparison is really interesting. How does it have echoes of Arizona to you, if I can ask? I'm not that familiar with the southwest part of the country, so I'm curious!

[@grantboyer9769]

@@AlexisDahl Climbing the small hills of rocky terrain reminded me how I used to explore the dessert behind the subdivision where my Dad lived. You get a better sense of being able to look around you. Looking out at the shrubs and small trees that were reclaiming the Fox Science Center, it is easy to imagine that happening in the similar rocky soil in Arizona as environments change. The crunch of the rocks under your boots is the same; the feeling of otherworldly-ness is the same; the way that you can pick your own ill-defined rocky "path" through the shrubs is the same. The Fox gives a microcosm of what I felt walking through Arizona. With the LP being densely forested and mostly flat, the Fox is like a more rugged interlude that evokes Arizona (though maybe without so much Quartz!). Climbing the northern wall of the quarry feel similar to how it feels scaling the larger hills around Phoenix, and the way that you can see water erosion making little rivulets and mini gullies looks similar. It's strange to think that when we are old, this place will maybe be more similar to a "normal" Michigan landscape. I hope it stays this way for a long time, so others can discover this in such an unexpected place. Okay, I'll step of my soap box now haha! Thanks so much for your videos - they helped us learn a lot of fascinating context after our trip up north, and the geology of our state, which is way cooler than I would have anticipated! On a totally unrelated note that might be a video idea, have you heard of the smelter slag rocks near Au Train? Kind of a cool geology/industrial intersection: www.lakesuperior.com/the-lake/lake-superior/383-lake-superior-journal-superior-blues/

[@jimcurtis569]

I've seen many of your videos but somehow missed this one. Now that you're up here in the Copper Country I'll tell you there's a similar place up here our family would like to show you. Not an official "preserve" yet but we're working on that..... 😉😎

[@noworriesmate5903]

Thanks

[@mackymintle7806]

Great job. Top tier execution!

[@hoosiercrypto9955]

Keep it up. You've got an amazing future ahead of you. 🤔

[@gptiede]

The dark days of CoVID, but we survived. We were resilient. I agree it is amazing how life survives. Glaciesr, volcanism, magma plumes that melt the land and spew toxic gases into the atmosphere for millions of years. Life may suffer a mass extinction, but it has always come back. And due to the mechanism of mutation, natural selection and evolution, life has always come back stronger, perhaps even better. I agree, there is definitely a life lesson in these facts, especially in our dark days. Thank you so much for this video.

[@denisedemaire5042]

Have you ever gone to the Petroglyphs in Cass City Michigan? It would be nice if you did some research and video on that region of Michigan…

[@Hotbeefsamich]

How about a short video on the Mandan Esker, seeing you live more north now!

[@ryankelsay8662]

great video!

[@jeevad.tharan4179]

great video. Keep going.

[@connorleach6370]

Great video as always Alexis :) Love the deep dive into how young we are compared to boulders...cool. One of my geology professors (an Egyptian) pronounced them "kaw-maze" (as if pronouncing it in Ecclesiastical Latin, or Italian. Fun fact!). Also, did you like your North America *almost* split up so much that you had SciShow make an episode about it? Hah. Also also, my parents and I love Michigan, especially in the winter. Many snowmobile trips were had there, and will be had there.

[@AlexisDahl]

Thanks, Connor! (And that IS a fun fact.) Ha ha, it was actually sort of the opposite! I did pitch the SciShow episode, but it was back in July before I actually went up to the UP. When I got home, I just realized I wanted to do my own take on it and explore the topic in a slightly different way!

[@connorleach6370]

@@AlexisDahl Ok, that's cool! Very nice.

[@NorthernChev]

Traveling east on M-45 between Kirk Park on Lake Michigan and Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, if you look to your left (north), beyond the black, nitrogen-rich fields, you see these strange long tree-covered “hills” that stick up out of nowhere. They are visible on and off almost the entire length of the trip. These are the covered remnants of ancient inland sand dunes. The once shorelines of the long lost Lake Chicago that formed as the glacier receded.

[@Bluebloods7]

3:38 - is that a Poplar or Quaking Aspen? I always called these Quaking Aspen, have I been wrong this whole time?? 😂

[@Bluebloods7]

Maybe answered my own question, confusing myself with colloquial terms instead of using the scientific name: Populus tremuloides 😅

[@C.Schmidt]

It's sort of a natural time capsule! A little slice of a different time. Or I guess the current time, just through a different lens. Either way it's cool. What's left behind from an enormous force of nature being used to make something arguably inconsequential on the timescale of the earth. Which itself leaves behind a window to the past and a literal touchstone to a time before multicellular life!!!

[@bonniearmstrong6564]

It made me home sick for Michigan. Yes, I have subscribe.

[@budwilliams6590]

I dig rocks.

[@megmolkate]

To clarify the intro….we’re talking Greenland.

[@EliAlexanderClark]

Place is an old mine.

[@NorthernChev]

That moment when you realize each time you slid down that rock you removed 100,000 years worth of layered build up with your body.

[@Bluehathiker]

New to your videos, but I am absolutely fascinated with them. At first I just liked the content and delivery, but after watching so many more videos, I love the story, the editing, the SCIENCE (big thing for me #facts), your enthusiasm. I could go on. Of course, now I’ve subscribed. I also do videos, the reason I stumbled across yours was in planning my next hike which was in the Upper Peninsula. Just want to say, nice work and maybe we could collaborate in the future. My Michigan video should be posted soon. Check out my channel and of course my new video. Thanks for all your work with your videos! Love them!

[@nbrysiewicz]

What's the difference between a Kame and a Kettle/Moraine?

[@AlexisDahl]

Oh, great question! The easiest distinction for me is the shapes. A kame is usually a mound, maybe somewhat cone-shaped. A kettle is a round-ish depression, which can often take the form of a lake. And moraines can look different depending on how they form, but many of them look like ridges. (All three of them also form in different ways!)

[@nbrysiewicz]

@@AlexisDahl Thanks for the reply. Like most good answers, it makes me have more questions. Thanks for piquing my interest. I grew up hiking these formations not giving them any thought.

[@AlexisDahl]

@@nbrysiewicz Absolutely! My pleasure. And I totally hear you on that! It's only been in the last couple of years that I've started to ask more questions about the place I live, and I've been surprised by so much.

[@John_Ridley]

A lot of the hiking trails in this area, particularly up in the Pinckney rec area, have educational signs that are pretty good about illustrating how the thing you're looking at formed, so if you get in the area, keep an eye out for those. I learned about kames from one north of Chelsea.

[@slavaukrayini4442]

You’re such a positive influence Alexis, I wish more people were like you. Went to this place after watching this video. I’m a geology hobbyist with special interest in truly ancient rocks and processes (which we have a lot of up in “da UP” where the big rock is from), indeed this is a very interesting place.

[@AlexisDahl]

I'm so glad you got to visit!

[@bonniearmstrong6564]

Have you been to Oxford, Michigan?

[@AlexisDahl]

I haven't! I'm sure I've driven by/I'm familiar with the general area, but I don't think I've spent time in Oxford specifically. Why do you ask?

[@davidburdick594]

Not another story......okay go ahead I'm listening.

[@kurthermann1302]

Read about Noah's flood and your time frame may change. really getting depth with it. lots of information.

[@lastone8896]

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[@infantry9903]

If you ever wanna check out some really cool glacier deposits. Check out stoney creek park in Washington, MI. Macomb County. There's a area of the park with hiking trails that wind through untouched Kames in the forest. There are some erratic boulders here and there as well.