Lake Vermillion State Recreation Area has a figure 8 hiking trail in the western camping area that circles the Maple Campground and passes near Juniper and Oak Campground. The trail is flat smooth and wide. It appears to be a mowed path through the prairie about 4 feet wide. At several places along the trail, large patches of wildflowers have been planted for the pollinators. The entire trail is about 1.5 to 1.8 miles long, depending on the path that you take.

It has some nice views across the lake, but the other side of the lake is populated with mini-mansions. There are several informational signs around the trail and benches for breaks or taking in the view.

On our hike, most of the occupants of the trail are insects, flowers, and a few birds. Sadly, the Canon R7 was not being cooperative and everything is slightly out of focus.

This looks a lot like a Boxelder Bug, but it is actually a Milkweed Bug. They feed almost exclusively on Milkweed Pods. The large ones have a black diamond at the front and back of the body with a black bar across the middle.

At the first pollinator plot, the wildflowers were in bloom, but it is getting hot enough that some are starting to wilt.

We saw an Orange Sulphur Butterfly at the pollinator patch with the flowers shown above. These butterflies blend in very well.

Lots of bugs interacting with the flowers. Not sure what type of bee it is. It does not look right for a honey bee. It was between the size of a Honey Bee and Bumblebee.

A Monarch Butterfly was also interested in the Thistle.

Kate used the insect photography time to take selfies. You can tell how long John spent taking photos by how many selfies there are.

And a metallic blue Damselfly that hung around in the grass for long enough for pictures. It appears to be an American Bluet Damselfly. We saw a grey one nearby that might have been the female.

There was also some Woolly Verbena and a tiny grasshopper in the last pollinator patch.

We saw a few birds, but they were too skittish for pictures. We saw a bright yellow and black bird that John thought was too big to be a Goldfinch, but Kate’s Merlin App disagreed.