Estrella Day 2: Timber Camp the First

(not ‘part the first’ but ‘my first visit’ because why WOULDN’T I stop at such an awesome spot twice?)

What with one thing & another I had a choice the second day between reaching the Queen Creek Walmart at like 3pm OR finding a place to stop for the afternoon somewhere after Salt River Canyon, so of course I found a nice place to stop.

I mean. TREES.

Loiosh went up one, of course. About six of them, actually, but I only got one good pic out of the lot.

Loiosh crouches on an oak tree branch, looking down past the camera.

I let the boys run rampant for a bit but then I wanted to settle down in a chair, so I got them all hitched up to a table so I could keep an eye on them. This required treats.

All three boys are on a metal picnic table; Loiosh hunkers down to eat treats, Hades is sitting staring off into the distance, & Major Tom is standing, twisted around to look away from the camera.

Tom got bored with that real quick tho.

Loiosh & Hades are in more-or-less the same spots, but Tom is in the middle of hopping down to the ground.

My youngest niece (my cousin’s kid, strictly speaking, but close enough) sent me a jar of Good Rocks for Christmas, so of course I’m going to return the favour! I found a LOT of Good Rocks & other treasures, enough that I sat down to sew a pouch to hold them all out of a couple scraps I had kicking around.

An acorn cap, two small bright green plastic balls, a single silver butterfly earring, & a pile of good rocks sit on a pouch sewn from grey t-shirt fabric with a shoestring for a drawstring.

Loiosh was Unimpressed with my industry.

The boy is sitting on a sheepskin that's spread atop one of the picnic tables. He's staring off into the distance with his ears just slightly cocked out to the side.

After a while I got bored & wiggly, so I went wandering. There’s a creek along the back of the recreation area, & it’s got a proper fallen-tree bridge.

A big tree trunk, probably a foot and a half across, leads over the creek. On the far side is the stump it was cut from.

It’s like. The PERFECT mountain creek.

A view down a shallow, rocky creek, running between tall trees with the blue sky above.

Tom came along, too. Crossed the bridge & looked like he wanted to just keep going.

The view downstream, with Major Tom standing on a smaller log that also crosses the stream.

… I mean. Feels.

But he came back, if only because I shook the treats at him.

Tom's standing on the end of the larger of the two logs that crosses the stream. The sun's rays are shining through the trees in a really dramatic manner & Tom looks like he's just been declared a saint.

It’s just the new growth but this juniper(?) really struck me — yes, it really was that blue-green:

Most of the needled on this juniper are the usual dark green but the new growth at the tips is an odd almost-turquoise.

& last, I am hella proud of this one:

There's a bit of ground in this picture, part of the creek & the big log that lays across it, but the best part is where the sun is reflected in the water, shining up through the branches of a young oak tree.

SO MUCH better than a Walmart parking lot!

This was posted originally to my Patreon, a little over a week ago.

If you want to see these posts sooner, & not incidentally help support me & my cats in our travels & such, the way to do that is to sign up as one of my Patrons for as little as a buck a month.

I’d REALLY like that.

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