"The end of land" happens at the city of Gully. Further to the west in Minnesota is the shore and lake bed of Glacial Lake Agassiz with rich deep topsoil for farming, to the east are conifer trees, lakes and gravel topsoil. We made a brief stop just north of Gully to see the Gully Fen, a Senic and Natural Area preserved for the rich and rare plants. In the same area are bog plants like tamarack trees and the pitcher plant next to fen plants like false asphodel and beak rush ⁽¹⁾.

Soils that are well drained (sand and gravel) work well for growing pine trees (shallow roots). As there soil gets some organic matter in it and the weather patters become less humid the types of trees switch to hardwood types of trees like oaks (with very deep tap roots that can survive dryer conditions). Even further to the west with more organic matter in the topsoil the forest becomes praire land that is now dominated by farms.

In the photos looking south (below left) we can see what was the shore of Glacial LakeAgassiz. The springs that feed water to the fen come from the "hillsides" keeping the road ditch flowing with water. Looking north (below right) the land begins to level off into former lake bottom.

Bogs have a pH of 3 to 4 and have water that is received from precipitation and plants don't have contact with a mineral soil so they grow very slowly because of a lack of neutrients. A fen gets its water from groundwater discharge, essentially a spring. The pH is more neutral and the soil has good amounts of minerals to support plant growth. If you want to see rare plants a fen is a great place to look.