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Brinton Timber's Creeks

The show of geology in the topography of Brinton Timber park (Washington County, Iowa) is an awesome natural feature of the park. Right before the fall leaves drop as the creeks have been flushed clean of leaf matter by summer rains it then becomes real easy to appreciate the bed of the rock of what is there. The late summer woods often are still green and the under-story not necessarily dried up or dropped either because of the wet often held in summer timber woods. It is a good time to walk the creeks and see what is in them.

These are pictures of the creeks of Brinton Timbers that catch a moment in 2014 just before the trees start to drop their leaves.

The outcrops of bedrock in each of the creeks are fabulous to see right at this time, even the creeks off to the sides where the trails do not necessarily go. Each creek watershed drops about 60 feet from the fields on top. There are different rocks that show the geologic story as the water carves down from the fields above the park. Along the south fence lines you'll find harder rocks of the glacial till, glacial hardrock erratics, planed or round hard mineral rocks that have tumbled out of the soil from a zone of soil and grit grinding just above bedrock that the watersheds now carve through as they erode down from above the park. Then as you follow the creeks down in elevation they drop over bedrock limestone shelves as they go along. The hard rocks become less common and the creeks give way on their way down to broken limestone and then white sands closer to the Skunk River flood plain. Geology and time working.

Right then (20 Sept 2014) for the next couple of days it was a great viewing for all the pools and waterfalls along the ways of the creeks there. It makes a great hike to just clink along on the rocks in the creeks. The geology of that park is a major natural feature of that particular park. It is (always) on show right now.

I hope you can share this to let interested people in on this to appreciate too. This particular geologic show is a great reason to take a walk in the woods, right now, anytime.

Brinton Timbers Park

Fir Ave

Brighton, IA 52540 ‎

Google maps: Brinton Timbers Park Fir Ave Brighton Iowa

USGS Maps:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=262:18:0::NO:RP:P18_STATE%2CP18_SCALE%2CP18_MAP_NAME%2CP18_MAP_TYPE:IA%2CALL%2C%5Cbrighton%5C%2CAll

With Kindest Regards,

Doug Hamilton

Fairfield, Iowa

[Brinton Timber was gifted as a park by the Brinton family to the public. The Brinton family goes back in Iowa to settlement times. At the time of gift in the 20th Century and again clarified in the 21st Century the designated intent of the park was that it be kept particularly as an undeveloped natural park as public access to the large cycles of nature that is Brinton Timbers. It was a visionary gift to everyone from a pioneer family to the area.

Brinton Timber left untouched as it is managed is a gem in the natural park systems of Iowa. It is a very special place of nature.]

Walking Down the Brinton Timber East Wood Duck Creek..

These pictures start in sequence from the Headwater uplands running down the Brinton Timber East Wood Duck Creek..

East Wood Duck Creek is the first creek crossing that one comes to on leaving the parking lot area.

Brinton Timber's Creeks..

These photos are reduced in size to fit in to webpage format and displays of smaller devices. They lose sharpness and get cropped. The above photo in the original was really cool as it shows a nice round glacial erratic rock sitting like a hermit by itself on the bedrock to the right of the water.