A witch-princess-fairy?
With Ethan
Lady with a dog
Our beautiful flowers: Gladiolus
Larkspur
Poppy
Month: August 2010
We intended to go to Bull Run Lake again over the July 4th Weekend. It’s a moderate hike, and easy to plan since we’d done it already, but there was lots of snow last winter, and there was too much snow on the trail.
Trailhead photo with snow in the background:
We drove up Saturday morning and took a long picnic break at Alpine lake on Hwy 4. So we got a late start hiking. After a mile of trudging over snow banks and sloshing along the trail full of runoff, the snow just covered the trail for as far as we could see. With big packs and impossible to find an easy way through the forest, we just headed down to the meadow nearby.
After Leilani played in the big stream and Andy carried the packs across, we found a nice campsite in the dry pines and rocks, above the damp meadow:
We were only about 1.5 miles from the trailhead, but happy to find such a nice place to camp. There were a lot of mosquitos, so we had the fire going most the time we were at the campsite.
Leilani took a few artsy photos
Andy looking out of the tent:
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:
On the third day, we were in no hurry to leave, so we left the tent up and went exploring again. I took Sonja and Leilani back up the rocks I had found the day before. We all had lots of fun climbing around:
It looks like you could climb straight up the rock, but we had to find easier was around. From below:
And from above, looking back down on Stanislaus Meadow:
But there were places where it was safe to climb up the rocks, which Leilani loves to do. I need to take her to the climbing gym this year:
And we found a lot more flowers. With the late snow melt, there was still plenty of water and the days were getting very warm. Sonja was delighted by this field of Golden Brodiaea:
Groundsel, which Andy calls LYF (little yellow flower):
A bright Penstemon:
Pussypaws:
And some sort of shimmery rock:
We stopped to play in the snow for a while. Andy made the snowmen, and Leilani put the decorations on them:
This is the top of the big rock I saw the previous day. I has erratic boulders left by the glaciers, and a stripe of white granite. This stripe is much harder and you can still feel the glacial polish on it:
Happy Birthday Samantha! I made the card and the gift wrapping paper myself.
Say “Watermelon” Sophia!
Playground! Climbing Rock!
Daddy! Look how well I can swing and pump by myself!
Everyone wants to help with the candles on the fairy cake:
The birthday girl with the crown:
