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Welcome to ElderwiseIn-person, online, and hybrid classes Spring Term 2025 Registration is Open > Tours & Field Trips

Tours & Field Trips   

  • A Spring Wildflower Walk at LeFurge Woods

  • This class has reached the enrollment limit.  Please click the "Add to Waitlist" button below.
  • OFFSITE TOUR:  LeFurge Woods Nature Preserve

     

    Enrollment: This tour is limited to 15 attendees. A waitlist will be available.
    Please let the Elderwise office know if you are unable to attend this tour. This gives students on the waitlist an opportunity to join. It also helps the onsite class assistant.
     

    Join botanist Bev Walters on a wildflower walk through LeFurge Woods just north of Ypsilanti, where the rich woodland never fails to delight the nature explorer. It is home to the typical spring wildflowers such as Trillium, Wild Ginger and various Violets, and it also harbors some of the less common species like Waterleaf, Spring Cress, and Blue Cohosh. Trails are often muddy in the spring, so wear appropriate footwear. Beverly Walters has experience both as a field botanist and a Museum Collections Manager at the University of Michigan Herbarium. Now retired, she helps maintain and improve the Herbarium's Michigan Flora Online website (https://michiganflora.net), a popular resource for plant identification. Bev pursued her botanical studies at Michigan State University. Driving directions and parking instructions will be emailed to class registrants a few days before the tour.

     

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor: Beverly Walters

    Capacity Remaining: -4

  • Dates: 5/1/2025 - 5/1/2025

    Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: Th

  • Building: Offsite

    Room: LeFurge Woods Nature Preserve

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  • Mud Lake Bog Hike

  • This class has reached the enrollment limit.  Please click the "Add to Waitlist" button below.
  • OFFSITE TOUR: Northwest Washtenaw County

    This hike is limited to 8 attendees. 
    Note: Because the enrollment is limited and Tom’s hikes are popular, he will be guiding this same exact hike on May 30.
    Please let the Elderwise office know if you are unable to attend this tour. This gives students on the waitlist an opportunity to join. It also helps the onsite class assistant.

     

    Mud Lake Bog occupies part of a 260-acre property owned and protected by the University of Michigan, west of Whitmore Lake. It is a true bog system - an open, often floating wetland characterized by an absence of water input from streams and by acid-loving plants adapted to nutrient-poor conditions. The bog is reached by a strenuous slog through densely tangled swamp land and wet mucky ground. Those who persevere will be rewarded by the breathtaking open aspect of the quaking peat bog itself and the lake it still surrounds after thousands of years. Hikers should dress warmly in old clothing and wear boots suitable for walking through pooled water and mud. Tom Friedlander is a retired University of Michigan trained tree-and-shrub taxonomist who spent 38 years teaching and coaching at Greenhills School in Ann Arbor. Driving directions and parking instructions will be emailed to class registrants a few days before the tour.

     

     

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor: Tom Friedlander

    Capacity Remaining: -1

  • Dates: 5/16/2025 - 5/16/2025

    Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: F

  • Building: Offsite

    Room: Mud Lake Bog

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  • Mud Lake Bog Hike (Repeat)

  • This class has reached the enrollment limit.  Please click the "Add to Waitlist" button below.
  • OFFSITE TOUR: Northwest Washtenaw County

    This hike is limited to 8 attendees. 
    Note: Because the enrollment is limited and Tom’s hikes are popular, he will be guiding this same exact hike on May 16.
    Please let the Elderwise office know if you are unable to attend this tour. This gives students on the waitlist an opportunity to join. It also helps the onsite class assistant.

     

    Mud Lake Bog occupies part of a 260-acre property owned and protected by the University of Michigan, west of Whitmore Lake. It is a true bog system - an open, often floating wetland characterized by an absence of water input from streams and by acid-loving plants adapted to nutrient-poor conditions. The bog is reached by a strenuous slog through densely tangled swamp land and wet mucky ground. Those who persevere will be rewarded by the breathtaking open aspect of the quaking peat bog itself and the lake it still surrounds after thousands of years. Hikers should dress warmly in old clothing and wear boots suitable for walking through pooled water and mud. Tom Friedlander is a retired University of Michigan trained tree-and-shrub taxonomist who spent 38 years teaching and coaching at Greenhills School in Ann Arbor. Driving directions and parking instructions will be emailed to class registrants a few days before the tour.

     

     

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor: Tom Friedlander

    Capacity Remaining: 0

  • Dates: 5/30/2025 - 5/30/2025

    Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: F

  • Building: Offsite

    Room: Mud Lake Bog

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  • Villa Barr Art Park Tour 

  • OFFSITE TOUR:   Villa Barr Art Park, 22600 Napier Rd, Novi MI 48374
    Registrants are welcome to bring and enjoy a snack in the Park’s picnic area after the tour.
    Time: 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.

     

    In 1975, internationally renowned sculptor David Barr began creating his home and studios in what was a cornfield near Novi, Michigan. Over the next 40 years David and his wife, dancer Beth Dwaihy Barr, transformed the site, creating verdant gardens surrounding a small lake, where David installed over 20 major sculptures. The site is now Villa Barr Art Park, a singularly unique park with pathways and a picnic area, where visitors can discover, imagine, and unwind. Ken Stevens will serve as docent for a tour focusing on the interwoven dependence of life in the arts, sciences, and humanities. We also hope to include a presentation by resident artist, Australian sculptor Deborah Redwood. Ken Stevens came to Michigan from the University of Cincinnati. He is Professor Emeritus at Eastern Michigan University, where he created both the musical theater program and the graduate and undergraduate programs in arts management. Driving directions and parking instructions will be emailed to class registrants a few days before the class. Registrants are welcome to bring and enjoy a snack in the Park’s picnic area after the tour.

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor(s): Ken Stevens

  • Dates: 6/3/2025 - 6/3/2025

    Times: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: Tu

  • Building: Offsite

    Room: Villa Barr Art Park

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  • Charles H. Wright Museum Tour

  • This class has reached the enrollment limit.  Please click the "Add to Waitlist" button below.
  • OFFSITE TOUR:  Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI

    Time: 8:00 am. to 4:45 p.m.

    Enrollment: This tour is limited to 15 attendees. A waitlist will be available.
    Please let the Elderwise office know if you are unable to attend this tour. This gives students on the waitlist an opportunity to join. It also helps the onsite class assistant.

    Fee: Member $32         Nonmember $37
    Fee includes roundtrip bus fare, museum entrance, and docent fees. Lunch cost is not included.

    For over a half century, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American history has dedicated itself to exploring and celebrating the rich cultural legacy of African Americans. Join us as we travel to Detroit on the D2A2 bus, leaving from the Blake Transit Center on Fifth Ave in downtown Ann Arbor at 8:00 a.m. When we get to Detroit, we will transfer to the Qline, to arrive near the museum. We will walk to a restaurant for lunch, the cost of the lunch is not included in the class fee. Following the Museum tour, we will take the Qline back to Grand Circus Park to board the bus to Ann Arbor, arriving at the Blake Transit Center around 4:45 p.m. Please note there will be a fair amount of walking to access our transfers and the restaurant. Class fee includes roundtrip bus fare, museum entrance, and docent fees. Lunch cost is not included. Additional details will be emailed to class registrants a few days prior to the tour.

     

     

  • Fee: $37.00

  • Instructor: Docent Charles H. Wright Museum

    Capacity Remaining: -1

  • Dates: 6/6/2025 - 6/6/2025

    Times: 8:00 AM - 4:45 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: F

  • Building: Offsite

    Room: Charles H. Wright Museum

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  • Tour of Great Lakes Gardens and Conservatory 

  • OFFSITE TOUR: Matthaei Botanical Gardens, 1800 North Dixboro Road, Ann Arbor, MI
    Enrollment: This class is limited to 25 attendees. A waitlist will be available.

    Fee: Member $10, Nonmember $5      
    Plus and additional $10 for entrance fee.


    Note: Parking is $4 for two hours, payable at the kiosk

    Matthaei Botanical Gardens education team members will lead an interactive tour of the Great Lakes Gardens and Conservatory to explore plants from the unique plant communities in the Great Lakes Region and from around the world. The Great Lakes Gardens re-create our region’s natural habitats such as open dunes, alvar, and prairies. We will see species found in Michigan and nowhere else in the world, as well as native orchids, and prairie wildflowers. In the gardens, a series of accessible pathways, boardwalks, and overlooks invites up-close views of plants we might never encounter in the wild, while interpretation illuminates the role conservation plays in protecting this unique diversity. Walking shoes are recommended. Stations where one can sit and rest will be available throughout the tour. The tour will be led by Matthaei-Nichols Professional Docent StaffDriving and parking directions will be sent to class registrants a few days before the tour.

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor(s): Gardens Matthaei Botanical

  • Dates: 6/13/2025 - 6/13/2025

    Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: F

  • Building: Offsite

    Room: Matthaei Botanical Gardens

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