Last week our son called to say that he was taking his family camping near Flagstaff. They were on their way, but why didn't Eeyore and I drive up for the day on Saturday or Sunday?
So we did. On Sunday we all connected on a shady Forest road.
The kids were excited about a nifty spot they had discovered, and wasted no time mounting their various machines to lead us there.
We jolted along a tiny, washed out, rocky road that ended at a wide meadow dotted with lovely, little, ground hugging flowers. I have no idea what these charmers are. Maybe someone else knows?
That little donut tastes much better than the dust Vee's been eating!
On one side of the meadow, sheltered by a kind of pale, feathery Juniper is the ruin of a log cabin. On the other, there is a cement tank with two vertical pipes in the bottom that look as though they may have brought water into the tank from the ground. Perhaps a spring flowed there at one time.
There is some fancy tile work around the top edges of the tank. Put there in the sixties maybe, when quite a number of folks were moving into old cabins throughout the National Forests. Sadly, the Forest Service initiated a policy of demolishing all the old deserted buildings and cabins to discourage prospective occupants. Many of the old cabins standing in the Bradshaws were fairly solid and held wood stoves and bits of old furniture. I thought of them as little pieces of history and hated to see them go.
Where did that lizard go?????????
Here's one having a sunbath on the edge of the pool.
There were a number of dirt stock tanks in this area including one on the fringe of this meadow.
All had water in them, and in the mud at the edge of this one were many tracks. Along with elk, deer, rabbit and bird tracks we saw turkey and some BIG cat tracks.
It was a lovely day.............
4 comments:
My AZPLANTS mailing list included a report from the Agua Fria Natl. Monument area which mentioned bear tracks, as well as a mysterious yellow mariposa.
Is your flower by any means an anemone?
It might be Anemone tuberosa. It all sounds right in McDougall's Morthern Az Seed Plants, except size and color, but does mention pink or purple sepals. Would that I had dug one up to tear apart, but was otherwise focused. McD gives none of the best clues - number of petals and stamens would have been the greatest!
Bear tracks! Now, those would be BIG!
Regarding the flower, I was going to guess "crocus", which probably pegs me as an extremely ignorant plant-o-file!
I, too, am bereft at the Forest Service's policy of knocking down old, abandoned cabins and shacks. It isn't just the forest service, either; around Earll Lake, when the leases on those plots expired and the tribe decided not to renew them, aside from lots of people destroying their cabins out of spite, many were razed by the tribe, probably for the same reason you cite. Seems like a sad thing than forest wanderers can't count on the hospitality of abandoned buildings, anymore.
Finally, thanks, Linda, for visiting my journal, recently. Slowly but surely, people seem to be responding to that wisdom test. I was hoping that would happen.
gail rae, that flower is as pretty and as showy as a crocus.
I think granny J is on the right track, but it's still a ?
I really enjoy your writing and I''m still pleased with my wisdom score.
Moderate was a happy surprise.
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