Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Salt Point State Park

We went camping this past weekend as well. This time we went with our friends to Salt Point State Park. It was magically beautiful!

 On Saturday morning, the boys blazed a trail through thick overgrown bushes.

 The trail was very overgrown in places, but they were awesome about jumping over logs and sliding down rocks.

 You can imagine the joy when the trail opened up into this.

 Breathtaking.

 Master hikers!


 There were so many beautiful succulents in the rocks.

A great example of tafoni, the official name for the honeycomb structures in weathered sandstone.







 A little tiny dead crab.








 Frisbee fun in camp.

 Stupid human tricks. No humans were harmed, amazingly.

Hike #2 of Saturday was into Rhododendron Reserve. Again, the boys took the lead.

 It was too dark for nice pictures, but we all agreed that this was one of the most beautiful hikes we've ever taken.

 Noah was tired and took a ride with Victor for a bit.

 Being tired didn't last long because we started running ahead on the trail and hiding so we could jump out and scare eachother. Good times!

 Boys in a hammock.

 This was before they both stripped down to their underwear...

On Sunday, we took a misty, mosquito filled hike up to the Pygmy forest.

 Noah needed to consult the map.

 The hike was a lot of uphill for not a lot of payoff, but we did find some banana slugs along the way!

 We'd never seen a black speckled one before.

 Usually they are just solid greeny-yellow.

The Pygmy Forest was a bunch of trees whose growth has been stunted by the soil conditions. Really, everything just looked dead or dying. Maybe if the way up hadn't been so mosquito-y we would have appreciated it a bit more...

Evey hike can't be the best you've ever been on, but we had a fantastic time and had a lot of fun with our friends so the weekend earns an A+.

Jellystone Camping

We went on our annual research camping trip a few weekends ago in search of the Western Pond Turtle. The campground closest to the research site is Jellystone Campground, so we had a Yogi-riffic time.

 This is what we were looking for. A pond turtle nest.

 Here's a flag for marking the nests.


 Do you see her? She's marked with a yellow flag.

 After waiting for them to lay eggs, the turtles are collected and brought back to camp to be processed.


 None of the turtles we found over the weekend were successful at laying, but they were all gravid. Here's Victor feeling for eggs.



 Size and weight info is collected and if the turtle is new, it is given identifying shell notches.



 This gal wanted to chart her own stats.

 Biologist in training.




Down time in camp.


 Don't worry, the turtles are released again. There's another young biologist watching the process.


 We found this young kingsnake.

 And some ant lions.

 Doesn't everyone feed ant lions on their vacations?

We also had some fun splashing in the creek.




 Even in camp, big construction equipment is a hit.

 We went over to watch and the camp manager asked Noah if he'd like to drive the backhoe. How can a kid resist that?!



 Driving heavy equipment is serious stuff. He really did have a great time, though.

 It is a Jellystone campground, so Noah made some new friends.


 He also did some mining for treasures.


 Look at those beautiful rocks!

 We went for a ride on crazy pedal dune buggies. 

 Noah stopped to fix the tires. Also, note the Boo Boo hat. The guy who gave him the backhoe ride also gave him a new hat. Noah loves it.

 A pond turtle at camp!


It was a lovely fun filled weekend!