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trilliummap

You can get to Geyer Road from the intersection of U.S. 12 & 31. 

Directions:  This is tricky because the road names have changed as the area develops.  The Walton Rd. runs from Buchanan north and west toward Niles and intersects US 31-33.  At that point is Geyer Rd. and you want to take it going roughly east. This road will go just a short way into a development and will curve to the right and then take another sharp turn and you find yourself on Riverside Road, just past that point you will cross a small bridge and that is the ravine. There is a small sign.

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The Trillium Ravine

Southwest Michigan, Berrien County is famous for blueberries, wineries, rivers and mills. What is less known, and often overlooked even by the locals, is the park-like Trillium Ravine.  Amazingly, this trillium wonderland is just a few miles from Buchanan.  It is easily accessible and is home to a couple of rare wild flowers.  The area is a mixed beech-maple woodland; and even though it is now nearly surrounded by a housing development, it is home to two species of toad trilliums at the northern limit of their range, the prairie trillium and a species of wood poppy that only occurs in Michigan's southwestern counties.

 trillium ravine

Less than a mile from the busy Interstate 31, the 14+acre ravine site is nestled between housing developments that have grown up. As you wind around the roads, you will finally see a small sign announcing the ravine as provided by the Michigan Nature Association.

When you enter the forest, it is very open making for an easy walk. There are sugar maples, basswood, ironwood and red oak as well as mature beech trees. By about the first of May, the ground is a riot of wild flowers so thick you can hardly avoid stepping on them. Just a few yards from the road you will find the ravine itself. I estimate it roughly at 150 yards long, 40 yards wide and 20 to 30 feet deep and, the walls are simply covered with trilliums as well as, may apples, trout lily and tons of blue violets. There are narrow pathways so you can wander around without trampling the flowers.

This is a wild place and the sides of the ravine can be slippery. There is no formal parking lot. The reserve is surrounded by private property. Please respect the boundaries and take out what you take in. Trilliums only bloom for a short time so the trip needs to be late April to mid May.