Royal Oak residents can explore two of the city's nature preserves on free guided walks between Sunday, Oct. 18, and Sunday, Nov. 15.

The Royal Oak Nature Society has scheduled five outings through Tenhave Woods and Cummingston Park, according to the city's parks listing. The walks cover fall color, mushrooms and geology. No registration is required.

All walks are free and open to everyone.

Three Fall Color Walks lead visitors through the preserves' wooded trails. Mary Fredricks, a botanist and mycologist with the Royal Oak Nature Society, will lead a separate Mushroom Walk focused on fungi found in the urban woods. A Geology Walk closes the series, exploring what the landscape looked like thousands and millions of years ago.

Tenhave Woods, a 22-acre preserve within Quickstad Park, was named in 1999 after Hessel Tenhave, a Dondero High School biology teacher who taught in Royal Oak for 34 years. Walter Nickel, a former naturalist for Cranbrook institutions, once called the preserve "one of the finest acreages of hard woods that I have ever seen in this area," according to the Pollinator Pathway project.

Cummingston Park covers 31 acres on Royal Oak's northern border. It is mostly wooded, with an open field and play structure at the east end, according to the city’s preserve guide. Dogs are not allowed inside either preserve.

The Nature Society is an all-volunteer group working with the city to protect and maintain both preserves. The group also runs a Friends of Fungi Mycology Club. Residents can join the society's free email list for walk schedules by emailing [email protected] with their name, address and email, according to its city webpage.

Upcoming walks:

  • Sunday, Oct. 18, 2 p.m. — Fall Color Walk, Tenhave Woods (park at Lexington/Marais lot, meet at Lexington entrance)
  • Saturday, Oct. 24, 10 a.m. — Mushroom Walk, Tenhave Woods (park at Lexington/Marais lot, meet at Lexington entrance)
  • Sunday, Oct. 25, 2 p.m. — Fall Color Walk, Cummingston Park (park and meet at Torquay and Leafdale)
  • Sunday, Nov. 1, 2 p.m. — Fall Color Walk, Tenhave Woods (park at Lexington/Marais lot, meet at Lexington entrance)
  • Sunday, Nov. 15, 2 p.m. — Geology Walk, Tenhave Woods (park at Lexington/Marais lot, meet at Lexington entrance)