Lincoln National Forest hike

This past weekend we hiked another section of Lincoln National Forest connecting with the Last Chance Canyon trail blogged about here. The loop we hiked covers about 7 miles of trail and traverses a nice cross section of this landscape. The first part of the trail took us up and up offering us some nice views of the surrounding mountains and interesting human artifacts. Look closely in the center of this photograph for a too straight line. What is it?

Looking with our binoculars we see a rock wall built by someone in the past. Wow.


After enjoying a flat walk on top for a while we descended into a canyon with spectacular scenery....

and discovered many interesting things including this rock with other rocks protruding out from the main.

Look closer - maybe you geologists can enlighten us.


Beautiful clear pools pocketed the stream bed. Happy little fish called these pools home. We watched for a long while.


Some of the first butterflies of the season flitted about in the 70 degree sunshine. Here's a hairstreak - maybe Henry's Elfin.

...and of course a mourning cloak. These butterflies usually overwinter as adults allowing for such early emergence.

Our reptilian friends basked in the sunshine....

algerita sported brilliant red buds...

and lichens made soil in all their fantastic colors.