[ A pyramidal, deeply eroded lump of coarse rock sits atop a treestump. Most of it is brown, but there are a few spots near the bottom, and one spot where it’s eroded more, that are white. ]
This is a salt lick! Ask me how I’m so sure!
… look, I didn’t say it was a GOOD idea.
Anyway it really was a lovely walk, bright sun, not too cold, just a bit of breeze. The Dude (otherwise known as the guy we rent from) had told me that there was a path maybe a quarter mile to the east, so we set off that way.
We didn’t find the path, but we found a great gully to walk up.
[ A small dry streambed winds uphill between tall ponderosa pines. ]
We wandered up that way, stopping every once in a while to pick up a cool rock or examine a neat bit of ponderosa bark, & we did find some pretty awesome things along the way.
This cut tree trunk was not, in fact, painted silver, but it sure LOOKED like it had been.
[ The upper part of the trunk is simply weathered grey, stretching towards the top of the shot, but the cut end, in the center of the photo really does look like someone’s taken metallic spray paint to it. ]
I’m always fond of moss, & it looked especially cool against the red stone & pale lichens.
[ A clump of grey-green fuzzy moss sits next to a orange-red piece of granite nestled into a bed of long pine needles. The edge of the rock is covered in pale green flakes of lichen. ]
I found a nonstandard fairy ring.
[ Instead of mushrooms, it’s a ring of grass, dried to a pale tan and grown to five or six inches tall. ]
Of course I found rusty stuff too; don’t I always? This barrel has been a target a time or two.
[ A steel fifty-five gallon drum, once painted red, is now faded to a paler orange-red and pierced in many places by bulletholes. ]
Smaller rusty stuff! Too big to take home & make something out of, alas.
[ A sheet of rusty metal, maybe a foot wide and several feet long, lies crumpled up like tinfoil in the tall grass. ]
Lastly, an EXCELLENT mushroom.
[ A roundish white mushroom, wrinkled much like a brain, hangs from a fallen ponderosa trunk. ]
You don’t hafta go far to find cool stuff, is what.
