June 1 Hike to the Thinking Rock and the Headgate

The new Headgate which is not opened yet.  I guess we'll have to go back up....

**You can click on the pictures to get a better look and then click on the back button to get back to the blog!  It is worth it!


Yesterday Erin, Brent and I went for a walk up to the National Forest.  It is one of my favorite hikes and we just HAD to see if there was any snow up there.  On the way up I took a few pictures of the dog-toothed violets and the snow banks we had to traverse to get to our destination.

The first flowers of the spring.  Dog-toothed violets!  Don't they just brighten up the mud?  They are blooming as they stick their heads out of the snow.  I love them!

A whole carpet of them out among the trees.  So pretty.

The first snow we encountered was at the big hill going up to the thinking rock.

Looking down the hill.  Notice the slash pile from the clear cutting at the bottom of the hill.

We made it to the "Thinking Rock" with very little snow but were amazed at all the trash of twigs and branches around the rock.  We could hardly climb up it because of all the sticks and "stuff".  But, of course, we did get on top of it and sat there and thought for awhile.  Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that none of us were acclimated to the altitude yet and had to catch our breath after the first hill climb.

Brent made it!  On top of the Rock!

Erin and Brent with that old dead tree still leaning up there. 

Then we decided to head on up to the headgate to see what Richard had done to fix it.  We came to some trees in the road and heard some scary creaking in the woods as the the breeze blew through but pressed on.  At the National Forest gate we came to another huge drift but we could walk up it pretty easily without sinking too deep.

OK, now we're getting into some serious snow!

Erin, you're going the wrong way!  You have to come UP the snowbank.

We made it to the weir and saw the big new ditch.  I had to do a little back tracking

to figure out what had happened to the road but finally figured it out and made my way to the top of the hill.  Erin and Brent chose to walk up the ditch--which was not running yet.

The new ditch,  Does it look like it is going up?  Must be an optical illusion!

Brent and Erin standing on the old headgate.

Look at that snow in the trees!  This is June 1!

More snow pictures!  Those drifts look deep.

Not much bare ground.

The leaky old headgate.

The shiny new headgate!

  I walked back down to the headgate and took these pictures.  It was incredible.  The whole north face of the hill on the other side of the creek was covered with snow and huge drifts.  My pictures just couldn't do it justice!  The creek is rushing but not as high as I've seen it. Seeing all that snow tells me it will be a lot higher the first really warm day we get! 

Brent surveys the snow drifts.

The old headgate and more snow!

Water is leaking under and through the old headgate.