Pope Lick Park
Estimated to date back hundreds of years, the Big Beech Woods is one of the oldest forests in the area. Hike the dirt trail that winds under crooked canopies and past tall middle-story trees and a regeneration layer of seedlings and saplings.
Within the forest you’ll also come across tumbled logs, standing dead trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants — the layers of woodland that provide a complex habitat for wildlife. Identify the beech trees this forest is named after by their gray bark. Wrinkles indent the bark of young beech trees so that they resemble the legs of elephants, while the bark of older trees is smooth, a characteristic uncommon with other tree species whose bark furrows.
