Gentian Meadow
| Onward we went, down the ridge until we ran into the "big" trail again. We wandered off and on the big trail, and soon came to a small tarn. On the other side of the tarn, on the house-sized outcropping of rocks behind it, near the ground, were black and yellow stripes -- the high water marks of the tarn, and the yellow was from when the tarn was covered with pine pollen.
| 
|
| As we walked around the tarn to photograph this wonder, we found that the mud on the backside of the tarn was full of rime ice. When you stepped in the mud, it laid the rime crystals on their side and left a beautiful shiny footprint. In addition to the stripes on the rocks, Keith photographed some rime crystals that were sheltered in the lee of a fallen log.
|
| The tarn turned out to be part of Gentian Meadow, between Arrowhead Lake and Skelton Lake. On the other side of the trail was a grassy area with the creek meandering through it. Above and below the meadow, the creek burbled down little cascades.
| 
|
| In one spot, where there were fallen logs in the creek, we saw dozens of little fish. There was a little hole underneath a log and we counted 11 fish in the one hole. Whenever our shadow would fall over their log, they would dart out and around and back under the log.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | you are here | click here next |
