Walk - Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park

The Wilton Preserve is a patchwork of publicly owned land in southern Saratoga County. It's another piece of the inland pine barrens that's so common around here, and very similar to Albany's Pine Bush. Both locations are in the process of reestablishing habitat for the federally endangered Karner Blue Butterfly. Wild blue lupine is critical to the survival of these butterflies, and is being widely planted in both areas.

We had heard that the lupine in Wilton was in full bloom, so we went to check it out, and maybe even see one of the rare butterflies. We didn't see any Karner Blues, but the lupine was indeed in bloom everywhere we looked in the open fields of the preserve. In the wooded areas, we saw pink ladyslippers rather than lupine. It was a pretty day for a walk, with more rain coming in again soon.