Welcome to the Natural History of Raleigh Photo Archive!

The greenway deck off Capital Boulevard looks toward Atlantic Avenue. Below is the rock that turns Crabtree Creek in its path on this stretch. The greenway dominates these blogs but there are lots of surprises - browse away and thanks for coming!

Light on a Flower

Whether a spray of turtles or a lonely bloom, light is amazing and revealing.

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Heading and Personal Picks

Blue-eyed grass, my favorite wildflower

Lady Banks chaos in the Raleigh naturalist's front yard

Jaycee Lily Garden

Raleigh Swamp Tour

Raleigh Swamp is the local nickname for this expanse off Raleigh Boulevard. A massive boardwalk with gondola connects Buckeye Trail with Capital Boulevard.

Snapper and snake at Fletcher Academy

This is THE Snapper that helped me write my book.

Yates Mill pond

Yates Mill has a wonderful tree-labeled walk around the pond. But the neatest stuff is in the wet meadow valley around a ridge from the main pond.

This huge willow oak is on the nature walk through the upwaters.

Google Earth image of my beloved Crabtree

This is an image of Buckeye Trail and the eastern curve of Crabtree Creek. I use it as a single image from this copyrighted source because it shows my childhood haunts, my favorite section of greenway, and the largest haven for wildlife inside the beltline. Thank you, Google Earth!

Marsh Creek at Brentwood

Marsh Creek divides the elementary school and park properties, following another sewer line toward Capital Boulevard.
An upstream tributary makes this neighborhood pond at Huntleigh Dr.

Meadow off Sunnybrook

This meadow at the huge undeveloped farm northeast of Poole Road and Sunnybrook can't last long. But the site contains two ponds, one large enough to called Jones Lake, and remnants of the other half of the pecan grove showcased across the beltline at the county park.

looking down Jones Lake dam road

Jones Lake

Poole Road pecan grove

State Street Greenway Violets

The State Street Greenway meets Walnut Creek at State Street just south of Carnage middle School. It then follows the creek to a large marshy area right behind Women's Prison. Here you can see red-shouldered blackbirds and hawks, along with some unusual wetland plant specimens.

The Haw River at 15-501

The Haw River is some of the best rock clambering ( and, in high water, kayaking) in the area.

Some quiet water splits off just below the dam.

Crowder Park on 1010

Crowder Park is relatively new, tucked away into the pine woods off State Road 1010, which runs a straight line east to west from Hiway 50 across 401 to Apex south of Raleigh. Cardinal Flower grows by watersides. The turtle below is probably a hibrid slider - local ponds are abundant with these basking turtles.

Buckeye Trail's beginning

The beginning (and oldest part) of the Raleigh

Greenway starts at Milburnie Road near Wake Med, where an old Raleigh landfill forms a meadow.

Soil Profile off Computer Drive

Where Big Branch creek crosses the Beltline, it carves across the last "North Hill" with a vengeance, creating a soil profile that reflects thousands of year of accretion.

Greenway creek by Longstreet below Sawmill

After a decidedly inauspicious beginning at Sawmill Road off Six Forks(see below), the top of the Raleigh greenway system quickly improves as it follows Longstreet down toward Lynn Road and Shelley Lake.

Raleigh Gneiss outcrop

Behind Briggs Hardware on Atlantic, you can witness evidence of the metamorphosized "suspect terrane" which underlies most of Raleigh.

With thanks for the sighting to Chris Tacker of the NCMNS. Gneiss is a metamorphic rock which forms from granite and other igneous rocks. The slabs of earth's crust that make up the "Raleigh belt" did not come from N.A. nor Africa, but some small piece...