Fremont's own Award-winning prairie - Newaygo County Exploring

Fall is my favorite season, hands-down. Between the fall colors, harvest festivals and some fresh-pressed apple cider, I’m one happy girl. A fall favorite event of ours is Fremont’s Hay Art and this year it was extra special.

While out exploring the city’s Hay Art displays, we made sure we hit the east side of town to check out what the Fremont Area Community Foundation had created. I saw the display with a super cute bee (I love bees!) that read, “It Would Bee Terrific if You Walk Our Prairie!” I looked at my husband and said, “Prairie? WHAT?!”. So, naturally, we took a little pitstop and went exploring.

In the 13+ years I’ve been a part of the Newaygo County Community, I had never heard of the Fremont Area Community Foundation Prairie. I found some wonderful information on the FACF website about the prairie- I’m always looking to learn more about the area and share knowledge. The turf-to-prairie conversion started in 2005 and has been carried out in phases over several years. Most of the eight-acre property now provides native landscaping for a variety of wildflowers, natural grasses, and wildlife. https://facommunityfoundation.org/community-foundation-prairie-wins-award/

The prairie is a beautiful, easy walk for people of all skill-levels and ages. I feel that both my grandma and my toddler would enjoy walking through the well-maintained pathways, admiring the flowers and scenery. Even in the off-season the flowers are beautiful. We saw honey bees (yay!), butterflies, birds and there’s even a little pond that I’m sure is home to frogs, turtles and other wetland creatures.

The prairie walk is also longer than I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise! We were expecting something shorter but WOW, not the case! The walk took our family about thirty minutes to venture through at a meandering-toddler-pace.

My itinerary for visiting would be to visit on a beautiful sunny day and enjoy a picnic lunch at the picnic table along the trail. Be sure to check out the beautiful flowers, enjoy the views (who doesn’t love a picturesque farmland scene?) and tell the Fremont Area Community Foundation THANK YOU for putting it all together.