Dolan Lake: Restaurant and Cyprus Knees

This was a great day about a month ago at Dolan Lake in Hamilton County, Illinois. I enjoyed a stroll in the great weather with a few family members and my dog.

I'm pretty sure these are Bald Cyprus trees. They have really interesting Cyprus knees growing strait up from their roots in swampy areas, like this lakeside. We'll look at some more of these towards the end.

This walkway and bridge always has the greatest view, but this time I took a moment to admire the walkway its self.

The intricate silhouette of these bare trees always seem to catch my eye. This smaller tree let me capture its whole silhouette, while enjoying the always amazing lakeside view as a backdrop.

The Dolan Lake Restaurant has been closed for a couple years. It had great food and I hope they reopen some time. That is my dog and his tail that you can see reflecting in the glass door.

Here is another Bald Cyprus tree along the lake. While many coniferous trees don't lose their leaves or needles during the winter, the Bald Cyprus is an exception; It is both a conifer and deciduous. It loses its fanned leaves during the winter, giving it the "Bald" part of its name.

This closer view of the Cyprus knees almost looks like a city of skyscrapers from afar.

This is view of the roadway to the restaurant depicts the season well. I can almost hear the crunch of walking through dry leaves from just looking at it.

• Photographed on March 3, 2018 by @soill
• Dolan Lake, Crook Township, IL
• Hamilton County State Fish and Wildlife Area, also known as Dolan Lake
• Google Maps Location

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You can see some of Dolan Lake's wooded trails in my previous post here:

Dolan Lake: Trailside Bees and
Fence Returning to Nature
(Series)