October 22, 2012

• Three months ago…

  …in July we went with some frineds to the Big Four Ice Caves. It’s a short hike, about a mile in. We got there first and wandered around the parking area while waiting. We were waiting at the wrong parking area, but, hey, this is my story and I can leave that bit out if I want to.

  As I was saying, we were waiting and I took a picture of a strange forest I saw above the picnic tables in the shelter.

  

  So I took a picture of it.

  Then I had to take a picture of my kids goofing off at the signage

   and a closer-up of the mountain and fog.

  Once we met up at the correct location (no cell service out there) we began our hike across a beautiful blue-green river.

   

     Before long, Kendrah has to rescue Quin from the jaws of a dangerous tree-alligator.

  And another tree manages to swallow four children (and a geocache). Big Four is a scary place!

    

  But it has much beauty as well.

   

  But, it’s mostly dangerous.

  The kids saw no cause for alarm, just snow, and lots of it! Woo!

  

  The caves were pretty small down below but there were some areas where the camera managed to pick up shades of blue in the ice.

  

  The kids spent most of their time standing at the mouth of a cave, bashing in the sides. The sun was shining but they worked till I wondered if frostbite was in our very near future. Their hands were red and felt colder than the ice they were hammering away at.

  Time for a break from mass destruction, there was another ice cave up the hill from us. Can you see it?

   Up close, that one was a bit intimidating!

  Ice caves are very dangerous, all joking aside. One should never ever go inside one or climb on top of one. This one was huge and uphill so we didn’t get too close because it was just as likely to collapse as it was to stay intact.

  Naturally not everyone is sane or cautious. This is what I call an Idiot On Ice.

  

  This guy walked halfway up the ice field and just sat there for about 15 minutes.  You can’t know where the ice is soft and rotten underneath the crust, and as far up he was, if he’d hit a soft spot and fallen through, he wouldn’t have survived. He did survive on this day, as far as I know.

   On to prettier things, we saw flora and fauna. 

  And a siren wanna-be.

  

   And blue-green water under a bridge. 

  And really great views.

  

  And other things. Like foxgloves — another dangerous thing! Foxgloves are deadly poisonous. Although why anyone would be tempted to eat them, I have no idea. But sometimes I lack imagination.

   

  Pretty sure you wouldn’t die from eating these daisies, but again, why would you want to eat them?

    Yum! Not.  

  I found the whorls on this log to be fascinating. I’d have liked to seen someone sand this smooth so I could see the grain clearly, maybe oil it and, oh, why not, shape it into a bowl or something, just for me.

  

  And now this last picture you’re just going to dismiss as, well, not one of my best. You may even not spare it more than a milisecond’s puzzled glance, but I really like it, and I’ll tell you why so you can appreciate my weird sense of cool. First of all, I am sitting on a cement wall, looking down into the crystal clear water, except for the swirls of the silt where I’d dropped a pretty rock the kids had found for me. It was an accident, don’t look at me like that. Anyway, I was admiring the clouds in the water when I noticed that the water in the shadow was also reflecting the clouds in the sky. Ok, so you were right, it’s a horrible picture, but I like it.

  

  And, it’s the last picture I’m going to share from this trip so you won’t have to look at any more.

  However, there are more trips, and more pictures, and maybe those won’t need so much explanation.

   

   

   

  • 11:57 pm
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