The G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area sits on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Northern Virginia.  While this park is very popular for its hunting, each year between the end of April and the beginning of May, the park explodes with the blooming of Large-flowered Trillium.  It is estimated that there are 14 million trillium plants in this park.

The flowers bloom with white petals that eventually turned to shades of pink.  This year, the peak blooming  occurred early so today’s plants showed a lot of pink.  While the big show is the trillium plants, there are other flowers blooming in the park now, such as the Wild Geranium below and Yellow Lady Slippers.

But the big draw is definitely the trillium that covers much of the landscape creating very nice compositions wherever you look.

While walking along the trail and taking in the flowers, it’s easy to overlook a lot of other things going on in the park.  For instance, if you stopped and took a long look at the rocks along the way, you’ll see a large number of North American Millipedes searching for food.  Just about everywhere I stopped, I could spot one of these guys below.