Silver Falls State Park May 27th Hike

As I was heading out on my weekly excursion to the park this morning, I decided that I would hike an area that I have never been at before--the bike loop trail. Aside from getting spooked by a small animal--possibly a rabbit--due to whatever it was running right behind me when I had my audio equipment on as high as it could go, it was a fairly nice walk. I also saw two Western Thatcher Ant hills that had been ripped open by a Black Bear, and as I noticed the ants were scrambling to move the baby ants still in their white pods, I was spooked once again when I came to the conclusion that those ant hills could have been ripped open that very morning--so I walked a little faster. As usual, below are some of my favorite pictures of the day...

 Western Trumpet Honeysuckle

 Oregon Iris

 Pacific Fritillery

 Baldhip Rose

 Early Blue Violet

 Red Elderberry

Pacific Rhododendron

Silver Falls State Park May 20th Hike

Once again, I headed out to Silver Falls State Park this morning with the idea of checking out the Upper North Falls and the Campground Nature Trail. As I was on the Nature Trail, I also recorded the sounds of various birds and a babbling creek. The compilation of the two (pictures and audio) will give you a sense on the idea I am working on--that is to create a video of what the park has to offer that includes many pictures, several short video clips, and audio of the natural sounds. Unfortunately, since this video makes the pictures look good only small, I will still be posting them like normal below it.

 Upper North Falls

 Red Elderberry

 Invasive Yellow-flowered Lupine

 Common Camas

Pacific Rhododendron

Silver Falls State Park May 14th Hike

As much as I love to go hiking, my right hip and my out-of-shape lungs just won't let me hike long distances as fast as I did a few years ago when I got done with a 6-week Geology field camp for my degree. During the class, we were hiking 7-12 miles a day over hilly and often steep terrain. As much as I would love to make a backpacking trip to Jefferson Park (on the north side of Mount Jefferson), I doubt it will happen anytime soon. In the meantime, I am breaking up the Trail of Ten Falls (the main trail at Silver Falls State Park) into segments that I can do within a certain amount of time without over-stressing my bad hip. Today I took the trail that loops from Winter Falls into the canyon, past Twin Falls and North Falls, and back out of the canyon. I also took a detour to see some of the waterfalls I saw last week to get some short videos of them. I will post them later. Now, the only waterfall I have left to see in the park this year is Upper North Falls...

 Baneberry

 Menzie's Larkspur

 North Falls

 White Fawn Lily

Winter Falls

Silver Falls State Park May 6th Hike

I decided that I was getting a little tired of seeing roughly the same scenery at the park, so I went on a longer hike on the Canyon Trail from South Falls to Winter Falls as I wanted to see more of the waterfalls. As much as I like learning the names of each plant so I can be a self-taught naturalist, I am getting a little bored of seeing the same plants and same scenery...

 Blue-eyed Grass

This picture came with a name

Drake Falls

Frenchie Falls

 A cascade that I call "Little South Falls" due to its size and proximity to South Falls

 While my favorite in Autumn, Lower North Falls has too much water at the moment to look pretty.

Lower South Falls

 Menzie's Larkspur

 Middle North Falls--definitely my favorite during Springtime.

 Vanilla-leaf--aptly named for the vanilla-like fragrance from the leaves.

Winter Falls--so called because it receives most of it's water from rain and snow

Two photowalks at two parks within a day.

Around noon, I headed over to Aumsville Ponds County Park to get some pictures of the place. While I did see some wildlife, the Great Blue Heron that I saw flew away before I even knew it was there. After I left this park, I headed over to Bonesteel County Park for more photo opportunities...

Aumsville Ponds County Park:

 Camas Lily

Canadian Geese

Red-winged Blackbird

Bonesteel County Park:

 "The Boardwalk"

"The Woods"