On the second day of the three-day weekend, we decided to just leave the tent in our little camp by the big meadow and explore the area.
In the meadow, the stream made some nice sandbanks where we stopped so Leilani could play. Fresh from her theatre class, she took it to be a stage for belting out show tunes (at least the one that she knows: Emerald City from Wicked):
Walking along the stream in the meadow, we saw this snake floating and swimming in the water. It didn’t seem to be distressed, it could swim quite well, so I suppose it hunts in the water or just needs to get across.
At the edge of the meadow, the stream goes over some cascades and the terrain gets rocky. We went to look at the little waterfalls, and found lots of flowers. Here Golden Brodiaea and Phlox:
Fresh Phlox blossoms are more pink:
Then we found a pool of water for Leilani to play in, a bit warmer than the stream. She had fun jumping in:
After a late lunch back at the camp, Leilani took a nap, Sonja played with the fire, and I took a hike uphill above the meadow. There were lots of neat exposed boulders and rocks here:
And more flowers. These are Penstemon:
Eventually, I reached the edge of the valley, where there were mostly big rocks and big drop-offs. This is looking SW, towards the Sierra foothills:
Looking SE towards the higher mountains, somewhere over in the snow on this picture is Bull Run lake:
I also saw this very well camouflaged bird, it blends in perfectly with the lichen-flecked granite. After some searching online, I found it is either a Common Nighthawk or Lesser Nighthawk (and I pity the Least Nighthawk):
Back at the meadow, I found this pretty pond reflecting the summer evening sunlight:
