Black Canyon 3/10/2012

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I hooked up with my friend Robbie for a day of hiking out in Black Canyon. It was a fine early spring day. We had a great time. The grasses were green. The wildflowers were blooming. Water was flowing fairly well for as little rain as we've had. We hiked upstream exploring all of the small falls and pools. We met a nice group of ladies hiking, Esther and Laurie and several of their friends. When we got to the main pool and falls They joined us for a couple of jumps into the ice cold mountain water. After that, Robbie and I hiked/bushwhacked much further upstream. It looked like not to many people ever venture upstream and it was real nice and pristine. It was a real challenge to stay out of the poison oak. That was probably the most poison oak I've ever seen. We caught a water snake and held him for a minute. It was so fat that it looked like it must have had two frogs in its belly. Upstream, there were so many frogs jumping around and the sound of there croaks filled the air even in the middle of the day.

After lunch, we made our way back downstream to the car and took a hair raising, white knuckling drive on the dirt road down into Pamo Valley. Don't take a standard passenger car on this road. We barely made it out of there. Anyway, we made it to Pamo valley and it was beautiful. Huge expanses of bright green rolling hills dotted with giant oak trees. After that we headed home. It was nice to get out and hike with Robbie as we haven't hiked together in a while.

Black Canyon

My buddy Dave and I got to take our daughters for an excursion up Black Canyon Creek. The creek was almost ready to dry up but the trickling water that was flowing was really enjoyable. The weather was perfect and we all had a good time. The girls seemed to really enjoy it. Dave and I did some swimming and jumping off the boulders in the main pool. I couldn't talk the girls into swimming this time. It was a great day for wildlife viewing. We seen two water snakes and caught one of them. We seen a crazy squirrel way out on the very ends of some oak tree branches eating acorns, and what was really cool was that we encountered a huge Toe Biter water beetle eating a frog. I can't wait to come back here after a couple of heavy storms hit.

Black Canyon

I found out on my first excursion into Black Canyon that even in August with the creek ebbing, A wonderful day can be spent here. The water has sculpted the granite into nice rounded pools. We spent the day exploring the creek, swimming and sunbathing. We seen a lot of fish in the main pool, caught a water snake and seen a giant grasshopper as well as the usual birds, lizards and squirrels scurrying about. This was truly a great day in the mountains. I plan to hike here again very soon.