Middle Creek Loop

This week I hiked the Middle Creek Loop. I’ve been looking through the “Top Day Hikes” list in the park newspaper as well as the hiking book in the visitor center, and had already mostly decided on this trail when I happened to hear my boss highly recommending it to some visitors! (He had come to my evening program to see how I did, so he was in regular clothes – but after the show was over we revealed his true identity. Fortunately he let me know in advance that he was going to be there, so it wasn’t such a huge shock!)

It’s a bit of a drive to the Middle Creek trailhead, which is on the western edge of the park – I had to go over and around to get there. Still, I made good time, and it’s a pretty drive. I was afraid I would miss the spot, but there was a small parking area with a big sign. I spotted my first flower right there.

 

I think this is Robin's plantain, which is a type of fleabane.

 

The trail is a 3.5 mile loop that starts out on top of the ridge, goes through some flat forest for a while, and then descends fairly rapidly – not too steep, but it comes quickly. Then most of the loop is following the ridge at this lower level, with an amazing succession of huge rockhouses and sheer bluffs.

 

There is evidently a softer layer here that is eroding more quickly, leaving a line of pockets in the rock – just the spot for decorative vegetation to take root!

 

I noticed this critter in the foreground as I was taking a wider view – and I somehow managed to get the camera to focus perfectly on it! (I’m not exactly surrounded by herds of bison here – I have to take my wildlife where I can get it!)

 

The white stuff is some sort of fungus growing on this log. I think it looks kind of like feta cheese.

 

Somehow, at least fifteen feet off the ground, a little tree has managed to take root in the middle of a sheer rock wall. Nature is amazing.

 

Those darker swirly lines sticking out are iron deposits that were left behind as the much-softer sandstone eroded away.

 

Partridge berry! After seeing all those double-flowered plants blooming on my hike last week, I now see why the berry has two spots on it instead of just one like, say, a  blueberry.

 

After nothing but green and gray, this unexpected patch of firepink really grabbed my eye! It was growing in the shelter of one of the big alcoves, so perhaps was further behind in its schedule because it is cooler there.

It’s scary to think of such huge chunks falling all of a sudden!

 

Many of the rockshelters have water seeping or dripping down from above. There is a lot of greenery in those spots! Some of the bigger ones, especially, have a regular tiny ecosystem under their ledges.

 

Hikers sometimes build little cairns of stones under the rockshelters. It’s become a tradition for a lot of them, apparently.
 

All those little pockmarks in the rock make it a little easier to believe it’s actually wearing away relatively rapidly… for rock, anyway! It also reveals cross-bedding in some of the sandstone layers, where there are diagonal lines going along the layer, revealing that the water where the sandstone formed had some kind of current to it that affected the way the sand was deposited.

 

Southern Showy Skullcap, a member of the mint family. What a name! For once, the purple color really came through! Also, there seems to be a member of the cricket family hiding on that leaf on the left…

I didn’t realize just how beautifully complex these flowers were when I took the picture. It is white milkweed, actual size.

 

There were a lot of rhododendrons near the rockshelters, especially in the drainages leading down and away, where the water would go when it rains.

 

More firepink! Gorgeous.

More wildlife! This is what I’ve always called a“daddy-long-legs”… it's not really a spider, but is a different type of arachnid.

 

Yes, there’s definitely a diagonal slant to those layers.

 

More than just a seep coming from that rockshelter.

 

It really is hard to convey the immensity of these rock walls.

Some of the rockshelters really had a deep overhang – this one went back far enough to almost call it a cave. Much further back than I could go without crawling.

I happened to glance down and spotted a moth on a leaf!

 

The mountain laurel along here is pretty much done – there was some still blooming, but most had dropped their blossoms and are developing fruit/seeds Aasfd?

 

Partridge berry blooming!

 

This rhododendron bud looks a little closer to opening than the ones I saw last week – a little less green, a little less tight.

 

A funny little gold mushroom!

 

Every time I thought it was time for the trail to start climbing again, I would come around a corner and find yet another rockshelter.

 

A different funny little gold mushroom! This one came up so suddenly it pushed the pine needles off the ground.

 

I came to a junction in the trail, where there was an option to hike over to the Sawmill trailhead and the Slave Falls loop. I was almost certain which trail to take, but I still worried… but it soon started climbing, and I knew I was heading back up to the top of the ridge where I started. Once it finally leveled off again, I still had a ways to walk, but at least the climb was out of the way.

 

I had seen buds of this flower near the beginning of the trail. Now I finally found some in bloom! It's got a name that's fun to say - Pipsissewa!

 

This one appears to have been chomped on.

It was really amazing how light and open the woods seemed on top – I’m not sure if that was a difference in the makeup of the forest, or if there had been that many trees on the ridge above me blocking the light.

 

Blueberries! Finally, I found a few that were ripe! Trail snacks that you pick yourself are the best.

It was at this point that I kept thinking I was almost finished, only to have the trail continue. This section was longer than I expected. I had brought water with me, but I was almost out by the time I saw the sign for the trailhead. I dumped the last bit over my head and face – I had plenty waiting for me in the car. The weather had been fairly good – lightly overcast, and even when it was sunny I was mostly under the trees. Still, it was pretty warm out! A few times on the last leg the breeze picked up, and by then it was welcome.

I drove to Pickett State Park, which is right down the road from where I had turned to get to the trailhead. It had the nearest picnic area, and I was ready for lunch! Even though the trail was about the same distance as the one I walked last week, it took nearly an hour more to get through – I think partly because there were a lot of smaller ups and downs around each rockhouse, and I had to really step carefully.

There’s a small lake at Pickett where they’ve dammed a stream. I ate in the picnic area across from some picturesque bluffs, and was joined partway through by a lone goose who swam up and began grazing. I was afraid it was going to beg for handouts, but it just wanted to tear up as much grass as it could swallow.

I had planned to go swimming at Pickett after lunch, but the gray sky had been growing darker, the wind picking up and I was beginning to hear some rumbles, which took care of that idea. It started sprinkling just as I headed back to the car. Foiled again! At least I know where that swimming beach is, for the next time I hike up in that area!