Teams Location: Brantley Lake SP
The OFM had the wonderful fortune to have a reader stop
by and introduce himself and his son.
Travis was a delight to talk with. He and his family were on the way to
a reunion and decided to stop by and say HI. It definitely improved my
day. Thank you Travis.
Today was a trip to show how badly the Sitting Bull Falls
area was devastated by the wildfires of last year. My head was ready to accept
that the damages were more than terrible.
You can see what the area was like before the fires in these previous
blog entries.
The NP folks have been very hard at work cleaning up and
rebuilding things. One volunteer told me
that a rain hit the area very hard and caused mud slides that covered the picnic
areas and even inside the restrooms to depths in excess of six inches. The
vegetation used to keep the slides from happening. Now with most of the vegetation on the
hillsides gone, erosion is a real problem. This area has been open about a
month and is a wonderful location for family outings.
As you enter the canyon this creek from the falls comes
down to greet you. There is a parking
lot just past the creek. This spot caused a lot of electrons to flow in the
camera to get this one picture.
The Team then went on up to the main parking lot and it
was nearly full! WOW that is good to see
that folks are back enjoying the location.
The picnic area is doing well and has flowers scattered around. It seemed to be in really good
condition. Some of the wood roofs of the
shelters had to be replaced. The Darling couple in the picture and the OFM had
a really nice visit during the time we were in the area. They were fun to visit and were here in Carlsbad
from Dallas for the weekend.
Along the walkway was this very agreeable pup with the
right idea about handling the 95+ heat. When we came back by, the pup looked
up, yawned and laid his head back on the cool concrete. Yep he has it correct.
All of the extensive trail system in the area is closed
for now. The parks folks want to get
some vegetation growing on the trails before letting folks use the trails. It
seems to me they are correct in trying to prevent as much damage to the
uncovered soil as possible. When the
trails open again, this is a prime hiking area NOT IN THE SUMMER.
Then as an incentive to come back a beautiful view greets
you at the exit gate.
Visiting with nice folks and touring great scenery
certainly gets you well on the way to trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.
Although wild fires are terrible and leave an ugly mess, they are Nature's way of keeping things in check and starting over with a (not so) clean slate. Some seeds need fire to germinate. But, vegetation is needed to keep erosion under control.
ReplyDeleteThere is or was a trail to one side of the falls that leads up on top, where there are several clear pools to refresh yourself in, if you don't mind cold water.
ReplyDeleteI once spent a summer night there quite illegally in a sleeping bag rolled out on the roof of one of the picnic shelters. There were at least a million stars. Though I admit I stopped counting before I was quite done.
In the morning I jumped in the pool below the fall to wake myself up. Yep, that worked.