Headland Dunes State Nature Preserve Hiking Trail Pictures

Headland Dunes State Nature Preserve in Ohio has a scenic natural beach on Lake Erie with many rare and unusual Atlantic coastal plain plants with a good site formigrating birds and monarch butterflies.

Headlands Dunes State Nature Preserve remains today as one of the last of its kind in the entire state. Extensive development along the shores of Lake Erie has all but totally eliminated the presence of sandy beaches and dunes at the western mouths of river bays and inlets from Sandusky Bay to Dunkirk, New York. The most important dune developers along the Lake and Ashtabula County coast are switchgrass and/or beach grass (Hicks, 1934). Switchgrass or beach grass becomes established on the upper beach along with annuals such as cocklebur and sea rocket. These lone grass plants quickly spread into huge root-like mats.

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Headlands State Nature Preserve gets sand that rapidly drifts into the relatively quiet vicinity of the switchgrass crown, and deposition occurs. Switchgrass and beach grass have an adaptation shared by many dune plants: e.g. cottonwood, red osier, Canada wild-rye, sandbar willow, etc. coincidental with the accumulation of sand around its crown, switchgrass or beach grass continues to grow upward through the sand. Eventually it will grow several feet above the original locality of germination or initial rhizome establishment.

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As the dune becomes more or less stabilized by the switchgrass or beach grass, grape vines and poison ivy become established on the dunes; eventually cottonwood and willow appear, and finally oak (usually black oak).

Headland Dunes State Nature Preserve Harbors plants usually found along the Atlantic coast, Headlands Dunes protects an isolated extensive sand dune shoreline along Lake Erie.

Atlantic Coastal Plain species, such as beach grass, sea rocket, seaside spurge, purple sand grass and beach pea, persist on the preserve’s sand dunes. But look closer and you’ll spot invasives, such as sweet clover, crown vetch and purple loosestrife, growing in this special place.

Headlands Beach is a delightful mile-long ribbon of shoreline framed by the pounding surf of Lake Erie, the shifting sands of Headlands Dunes and the waving grasses of Mentor Marsh. During the spring and fall migrations, the headlands are a birder’s paradise. In the height of summer, the beach is a swimmer’s oasis and a beachcomber’s delight. Anglers are ecstatic over the fall steelhead run from the great lake to the Grand River, and butterfly lovers rejoice over the monarchs that congregate at Headlands Dunes State Nature preserve each autumn.

Today’s sparkling lake and sandy beach are the products of ancient ice and water. Thirteen thousand years ago, northern Ohio was covered by a vast inland sea stretching from western New York state to northeast Indiana. The sea was created by the melting Wisconsinan glacier and shaped by the retreating ice, which left behind thick ridges of sand in its wake and exposed new outlets to drain the water, thus shrinking the sea to form modern Lake Erie and its environs. Over the last thousand years, the lapping surf and pounding waves of Lake Erie and the swiftly flowing waters of the Grand River have sculpted the unique headlands landscape of sand, forest and marsh.