My Fascination with Wild Mushrooms

I am fascinated with mushrooms that grow out in the wild.  Okay, seeing mushrooms growing wild in downtown Princeton, NJ isn't like seeming mushrooms on a hiking trail in the wilderness, but it comes really, really close to awesomeness.  I think that the pictures will show you what I mean when I say that I am truly "hung up" on wild mushrooms.

One day just running in the woods at Mountain Lakes Preserve http://mikestrailhead.com/PrincetonMountainLakes.html, I came upon this mushroom:

This was really incredible!  If I hadn't looked down, I would have missed this sweet find!  What kind of mushroom it is, who knows...but it sure is unusual.  

Out on another run, I came across this mushroom right in front of someone's house on Library Place.  This one was huge, over 2 feet in diameter.  All intact, really amazing! 

Growing Vertically

Green, Orange and Brown on the bark of the tree

Here are a few more mushrooms found in Mountain Lakes Preserve in Princeton, NJ: 

looks like what you find at the grocery store, but I wouldn't eat this one!

Mushroom Pillows...Who would of that that there is so much "fungus" among us? 

under view of the Pink mushroom

Last, but not least in anyway, two beautiful wonderful mushrooms from Acadia National Park in Maine. So pretty! 

Pink top view

Shelf mushroom upside down!

All of these mushrooms are different, unique, unusual and I love taking pictures of them.  What a joy to be able to find mushrooms in the wild!