"Things that Glow" Tour

Don heard the Burlington County Park System was going to hold a Friday night tour called "Things that Glow." I booked out reservation while he was in Omaha. He asked his boss if he could leave REI 15 minutes early so we could make it to Arney's Mount Park on time for the tour. A couple of weeks earlier we visited the park as part of our troll hunt so we knew exactly where to go.

This was an example of us reading our expectations into a description. When we read "Things that Glow," we thought we were going to find glow worms in their natural habitat. In 2023, we learned Wellington, NZ has glow worms. A bit of researched showed they also exist in New Jersey. We thought this tour was to help us find glow worms in nature.

Short answer, that is not what we saw. Instead, Jen, our naturalist, handed each couple a UV flashlight so we could see UV-induced visible fluorescence, an amazing phenomenon that is normally invisible to us. Using the lights, we saw mushrooms and plants that glow in dazzling colors. Jen was just as excited taking pictures along with us of nature under the UV flashlight, and with a normal flashlight. Jen is one of the country's leading experts in this field.

Safety first, we were all given goggles and a safety speech before we crossed the roadway into the park. We passed the troll, which was hidden in the dark. A man with a German accent asked me about the troll. I tried to explain it was a public art project created to encourage people to visit the 18 trolls throughout Burlington County, but even in the dark I could tell he was looking at me as if I had six heads.

Here are my pictures from the stroll: