Muir Woods National Monument

During a recent trip to California, we walked a popular loop on the Ben Johnson and Hillside trails at Muir Woods National Monument, which is near Mill Valley and about 15 miles north of San Francisco.  We made the smart decision of getting to the park early before the inevitable weekend crowds.  We got there a little after 8:00 while the tour buses and individuals forced to park their cars way down the road showed up around 9:30.

The monument features towering redwoods and has trails that link up to surrounding openspaces and parks.  We saw and heard lots of interesting birds and the morning light through the trees was incredible.

Hetch Hetchy - Yosemite National Park

In June 2013, I hiked the trail along Hetch Hetchy Lake in Yosemite for the second time.  This fairly easy hike has little altitude change and tons of great scenery, making it a nice acclimatization hike before doing a more rigorous hike or backpack higher up in the park.  Unlike my first visit to Wapama Falls, 2.7 miles from the trailhead, this trip involved lots of unexpected excitement.  I've visited a lot of national parks and Yosemite is not one of the better wildlife ones.  On top of that, busy/easy/short trails are not the best places to spot wildlife.  On this day, the animals appear to have ignored those memos.  

To start things off, we nearly stepped on a western rattlesnake that was sunning itself in the trail.  That was rudely followed minutes later by an alligator lizard (San Diego Alligator Lizard?) doing its best snake in the trail impression for already frazzled hikers.  After reaching the fantastic Wapama Falls and soaking up the mist, we began the warm, dry hike back.  Here I will add that we encountered many groups of day-hikers, so the trail was not deserted.  While walking the familiar trail back to our car, taking in the gorgeous lake and cliffs to the left and the rocky, scrubby slopes to the right, I spotted a streak of brown that turned out to be a deer running uphill away from the trail.  While the word "Deer!" was exiting my mouth, I noticed a slightly smaller black blob running right behind the deer!  I have no idea what the explanation was, but we were witnessing a bear cub chasing (or running away from a waterhole with?) a deer.  I was too in shock to take a photo, but did get a video of empty scenery with me in the background explaining what we'd just seen.  While my wife was a little spooked by the rattlesnake/bear combo, I was disappointed I'd failed to get a photo of the only bear we'd be likely to see on our visit to the park.  Luckily, a few minutes later, with me in the lead this time, we came across another cub, not far from the trail and not running.  We watched it for a bit and continued on, this time clapping, whistling, and talking loudly in hopes of not surprising any mother bears that might be nearby.  With this strategy, we made it back to the tunnel and across the dam without further incident.

O'Shaughnessy Dam

Hetch Hetchy

Alligator Lizard

Western Rattlesnake

Newt on Trail on Rainy Day.

Newt on Trail on a Rainy Day. 

   

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Village Creek State Park

Located on Crowley's Ridge, Village Creek State Park, has numerous trails for hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders.  The park, the second largest in the state, also offers swimming, golf, fishing, boat rentals, and camping.  I also saw basketball and tennis courts, but am not sure if they are still used frequently.

While the origins of Crowley's Ridge are debated, the ridge's unique soils and high elevation compared to surrounding floodplains and deltas allow it to support species not commonly found elsewhere in the state.  Having lived in Indiana for awhile, it was interesting to find a forest full of tulip trees, sugar maples, and beeches here in Arkansas.

We camped in the park on our way from Fayetteville to Birmingham.  The site was fine (a little too developed and designed for RVs for my taste) and we saw deer and several raccoons up-close.

I've included a map of the trails in the park below, though we only did the short, Ben Ben Nature Trail which has a great brochure with lots of information on plants and the local ecosystem.

Birds of The Buffalo (and other Arkansas Waterways)

All trips on the Buffalo River include seeing spectacular bluffs and enjoying the water.  Most floats also involve chasing great blue herons downstream, while turkey vultures circle overhead and kingfishers swoop across the river nearby.  If you go on a less busy day, in the evening, or to a lonelier stretch you may get to see even more interesting bird species.

Here are some descriptions of birds you might see on a float down the Buffalo (or any other waterway in Arkansas):

Buffalo River - Gilbert to Hwy 14 Bridge

On the first hot weekend of May, we took advantage of the perfect water levels, nice temperatures (warm during the day, still cool at night), and the clear water not yet full of summer algae; and went on an overnight float on the Buffalo.  Gilbert was packed and business was good for local boat rentals and restaurants.  Having a dog and looking to camp, we wanted to pick a stretch of river that might be less busy than the popular Tyler Bend to Gilbert and Hwy 14 Bridge to Buffalo Point floats, so we settled on Gilbert to Hwy. 14 (also called Dillards Ferry).

After leaving a car at Dillards Ferry, we departed Gilbert at about three in the afternoon.  With the river at about 4.5 ft. we made pretty good time and didn't have to drag boats anywhere.  Our plan to avoid crowds worked and paid major dividends.  Less than 2 miles downstream of Gilbert, near the old bridge piers (a spot also accessible by foot from Gilbert) we spotted a Bald Eagle on the shore!  We spooked him too quickly to get a close-up, but luckily he flew downstream and we got a second chance to take photos (see below) and a poorly focused video.  We also saw a lot of other wildlife including a beaver, green herons, great blue herons, kingfishers, and approximately 1.3 billion turtles primarily of the red-eared slider and false map varieties.

We spent the night on Cain's Island, just upstream of Maumee North.  The next day, after the fog cleared, we paddled to Maumee and picked up an additional paddler: my dad.  From there we floated downstream to Dillards Ferry, stopping along the way several times to drain and reinflate the inflatable kayak.  The bluffs along this stretch were spectacular and there were lots of good pools for swimming.  It was really interesting seeing this section from another point of view, after hiking it earlier this year.