Kurtz Woods features a southern mesic forest with a great variety of trees and nice displays of spring ephemeral wildflowers in an sububrban setting in Ozaukee County.  Parking is on the roadside in a residential neighborhood.  Two trailheads are are found on Dahlia Lane and West Acadia Drive.  Each is between two houses and evident via gravel paths leading from the street to the forest.

I visited Kurtz Woods at the end of April and found things to be a bit behind in the spring ephemeral department.  Bloodroot and a very large number of  spring beauty were in bloom.  Wild leek leaves puncuated the brown leafscape with their vibrant green hues.  The trees towered above, though without their leafy canopies.  Moss covered seemingly every fallen log and tree stump.  The trail was over easy terrain and formed a semicircle connecting the two trailheads.  The suburban setting reminded me of Eagle Centre Prairie while the forest had the feel of a place like Haskell Noyes Memorial Forest, though with a different composition (mesic versus dry-mesic) and not quite the topography of the latter.  I would not mind returning a bit further along in the ephemeral season or perhaps during fall color season.

Forest

Bloodroot

Spring Beauty

Forest

Mossy Macro

Trailhead

Forest

More of my photos (and full-res) from Kurtz Woods can be viewed here.

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