On Thursday, I did a hike out of the Teton Valley, up along South Darby Creek/Canyon to a wind cave. A waterfall pours out of the mouth of the cave, and I guess if you hike farther up, you will find ice caves too (I didn't - this almost 2000ft. gain, 5 mile hike was plenty for this out of shape hiker!)! The innards of this cave are often explored by intrepid, flashlight-carrying folks, but there was too much water for comfortable spelunking this time. Plus, there was a notice posted on a trail-side tree about "white nose syndrome," requesting that people not enter the cave. Very sadly, this disease has apparently killed off more than a million bats so far. If you're a caver (Mark, Tim, Andrew, et. al.,...), PLEASE read here and be careful, for their (and ultimately, our) sake: http://valleycitizen.com/stories_news_detail.php?pkStories=253
The trailhead at South Darby Creek.
This is a popular, well-known trail in this area, so I was not really surprised by all the people I found there - but I WAS surprised to find out that the group in this photo is just ONE extended family! They had a lot of little kids with them, and I don't think they made it that far up the trail, as there were a few tricky creek crossings... But I give them full credit for attempting it!
The view back down the canyon after I'd come a little over halfway.
Here, you can see the wind cave from across the valley.
Pretty waterfalls on a cliff below the wind cave.
A big ol' flower stalk that I thought I knew but don't.
This bee thought it was a pretty cool flower too.
I know this one though!! (and I know you do too, Patty!) Not as colorful as Colorado's state flower (blue & white), these columbines are still beautiful!
Wild geraniums have to be the most abundant flower in this whole area.
I'm not sure what this flower is either. Haven't seen it before.
One of my favorites - gorgeous bluish-purple penstemon!
And another favorite - larkspur.
A small waterfall enroute.
Someone got "cute" (hmm...maybe not so much...?!) and put a cairn/duck in the flow...
The view from the other side of the canyon/valley now - I'm nearly there! Yay! The trail I ws just on runs along the top of that cliff.
Looking up at the waterfall coming out of the wind cave.
And then looking out at the valley and opposite mountains.
Somebody reciprocating after I offered to take their picture in front of the falls.
I did NOT go in the cave at all, but I did go to the base of the falls. Too bad I didn't have a flash on this camera, but it was still a cool look.
OK, before anyone freaks out - this is a harmless, innocent, non-venomous little snake. I was completely taken by surprise when I saw this in the road on the way out. I wasn't sure but thought it might be a snake - even if it did look a lot more like a twig! But I braked hard, thank goodness, got out and checked to see if I'd spared a living being or a dead tree branch. I was very grateful to have stopped in time when I discovered it was indeed a reptile of sorts. But I wasn't sure what it was exactly! It looked mostly like a snake, but... Both ends were pretty rounded, not tapered or very differentiated. It had tiny eyes and was VERY slow. I'm sure I could've picked it up but didn't (unlike some friends we have...umm, will Mr. Polley please stand up!). In fact, it took a long time googling when I got home (and calling on pal Chris P. for his expertise) to get an ID on this guy. A rubber boa! Kin to our San Diego rosy boa. What a fantastic, exciting, and unexpected find this was!!
Again, to see larger versions of any of these photos, just click on them (I am trying a new tool to show slightly bigger images on the blog). That way, you can see this guy's little eyeball a little better! And maybe he can see you too...?!
No comments:
Post a Comment