Carnivorous Plants

Saturday we woke up to a chilly morning and planned to find some carnivorous plants.  Before leaving Carolina Beach State Park, we made a quick stop at the Fly Trap Trail.  Sure enough, part way through the loop, we spotted some of the trail's namesake.

Near the end, there were some pitcher plants in a pocosin swamp.

Then we took off, stopping for breakfast on the way to Brunswick County.

We stopped at the parking area for Green Swamp Preserve.  There was a small pond right next to the parking area.

The trail led through a scenic longleaf pine savanna.

The longleaf pine is dependent on periodic controlled burns to germinate the seeds and clear out the competition.

The trail through the preserve was blazed with red diamonds and was about 1.3 miles.

We saw some flowering pixiemoss along the trail.

There was a narrow boardwalk through a swamp area.

Soon, we came to a big patch of Venus flytraps.

It was a little early in the season and they were still very small.  We saw some pitcher plants as well.

A pinewood daisy was starting to pop up.

It started to get really swampy.  And we had to watch our step as there were a lot of little sundews popping up.

We turned around before the end because it was very swampy and we didn't want to trample the tiny carnivorous plants.

From here, we headed back towards Carolina Beach, got lunch and went to Fort Fisher State Recreation Area.  It was pretty windy so we first hiked down the Basin Trail.  The live oaks provided great protection from the wind.

Near the aquarium, a snowy egret was fishing in the pond.

The wind wasn't too bad along the trail.

There was some yaupon holly with bright orange berries along the trail.

The trail ended at the Basin Overlook peering into Zeke's Island Coastal Reserve.

Then we hiked back and took Alex for a short walk on the beach.

It was really windy so we didn't go too far.

Heading back to camp, it was much less windy away from the beach, so we went for one more hike.  We took Campground Trail to Sugarloaf Trail and headed to the limesink ponds to look for more carnivorous plants.  There were several sundews at Grass Pond.

Then we walked along the shore of Lily Pond.  There were a lot of lily pads but we didn't find insectivores.

Continuing on, the last pond was Cypress Pond.

We found a couple of real nice patches of sundews again here.

We followed the trail to Sugarloaf Dune and took a break here to enjoy the view.  There was a lot Spanish moss draped over the trees.

After a break, we finish the trail and headed back to camp.

We drove into camp for dinner and then stopped at Good Hops for drinks afterwards.  Back at camp, we made a big fire to stay warm.