Nachusa Grasslands

Nachusa

Over the Summer Matt, my sister and I attended the STEM event, Breakfast with the Bison at a nearby tall grass prairie, Nachusa Grasslands. I’ve been pretty obsessed with the tall grass prairie since I was in high school when my grandma (who volunteered to conserve prairie lands near her home) taught me. My first semester in college, I took an environmental biology class and focused projects and did outreach in the classrooms about prairies. Since then I’ve had an item on my bucket list to join a prairie conservation group.

prairie buttons

Years back I made a little prairie watercolor illustration that I turned into buttons

It poured on our way there and was a fairly blustery day, but it cleared up in time for our hike. The prairie at Nachusa was SO beautiful and so I want to share some of the pictures that each of us took.

8.29 Nachusa Tall Grass Prairie2

8.29 Nachusa Tall Grass Prairie

This might be a bunch of invasive, non native plants, but I thought it was pretty. Just got back from #nachusa #tallgrassprairie

Matt at #nachusa

little yellow house on the prairie

The pictures above were mine. One thing our guide said was how everything changes from week to week and things will look completely different, so I’m excited to go back again and again to witness those changes over the seasons. Other than all of the other people that were there for the event it was such a peaceful place and I really just want to go and hang out for a longer period of time.

8.15 me at Nachusa

Here is a picture of me I found on Matt’s camera. This is how excited I am to be in the prairie. Of course I had to wear my Prairie State shirt from The Rockford Art Deli. The next 3 are other pictures Matt took and shared on Flickr. He took TONS of pictures, but deemed only these 3 worthy of publication.

DSC_1983

DSC_2071

DSC_2112

Had to get one of the bison. Apparently they just added them last year and have already almost doubled their herd. The bison at Nachusa are real bison. Apparently a lot of “buffalo” farms actually have bison/cow hybrids because they can cross breed. I didn’t know that!

Below are some pictures my sister took

Nachusa 360

You can click on any of the pictures in this post to see them larger.

Nachusa by stay1995

Nachusa by stat1995

Nachusa stat1995

Again, super excited to be in the prairie

Nachusa stat1995

Nachusa stat1995

If you follow me on instagram you may have seen a snippet of a project that was inspired by our trip to Nachusa. Check back in a couple days to see a finalized project based on that snippet.

robayre

Hi, I'm Robyn and I was Hatched from a Kinder Surprise Egg. Graphic Designer by day, Maker of things by night. I have worked as a graphic artist professionally since I was 16 years old. Went on to get my Bachelors of Art from NIU. I like to share my Artwork online at flickr.com/photos/robayre and on my own personal website http://www.robayre.com. I also have an online shop http://www.robayre.etsy.com where you can find more of my "crafty" sorts of things, as well as a random piece of artwork here and there. Oh, and I'm also an occasional contributor to Artomat (artomat.org).

One thought on “Nachusa Grasslands

  1. This is so great! I love the action shot of Matt and both pics of you being crazy excited. Jason has been there but I haven’t. Can’t wait to take the girls when we move back! Prairie forever!

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