The trail starts off on top of a ridge, walking through the woods.
I saw several of these yellow flowers. I haven't been able to identify them.
This mushroom, on the edge of a miniature ridge at the side of the trail, led me to coin the groan-worthy phrase, "a 'shroom with a view."
This trail marker might need to be replaced soon!
This appears to be a fairly recent lightning strike - that dark mark is actually charred wood.
The rhododendrons are still blooming, but are mostly finished.
Mountain laurel berries. These were blooming the last time I was here.
Blueberries! Or huckleberries, or whatever! Yum.
Starting to get away from the woods - that's bare rock on the trail.
More blueberries! A very short plant, as opposed to the tall bush from earlier, and obviously a very different shade of blue. The others were more of a purpleberry.
Looking off to the side, you can see the trail is getting closer to the edge of the ridge.
And now we go DOWN. I had forgotten about this entirely. Still, it's not bad - I'd much rather go down than up!
View from partway down.
View looking the other way. Oh, my! Just a few were in reach.
This bush, a little way from the bottom of the stairs, fairly demanded that one stop and sample.
Even with that descent we're still up on a rock. These trees are all a lot smaller, since there's very little soil to speak of - and they're mostly pine, which tend to do well in that situation.
Much of the ground cover was either moss or this thick lichen that is very dry and scratchy but looks like it should be soft.
This part I remembered - walking over the first arch. It's quite a nice natural bridge, wide enough that you can stay well away from the edge if that bothers you.
Of course, if it doesn't bother you, you can take the side trail, clamber up the precarious path, and go out on top of the second arch for a wide view of the surrounding hills. Look at that pine tree growing from nothing!
Once again we see that all the hills are the same height, having started out as a solid plateau and then had bits worn out in between by streams flowing.
Little pine seedling growing from a tiny bit of sand in the bare shelter of a sandstone crevice. This is how it all gets started. Nature is awesome.
I've been seeing a lot of these blooming along the roads lately. I hadn't realized it was sourwood, which I only knew as having vaguely lemon-tasting leaves. Although I was vaguely aware that sourwood honey is a thing - I guess this is the flowers the bees get that nectar from!
Looking back at the ridge near where I just came from.
Looking across to the next ridge over.
I climbed back down to the trail, went down a second long flight of stairs, and headed to the arch that I could see from there.
These arches are huge - to the point that it is impossible to actually get the whole thing in one picture!
This picture and the next one are taken in opposite directions from the same spot, approximately in the center of the arch.
Big chunks that have fallen - those great veins of iron are what holds all this sandstone together so well in the first place.
I headed off down the trail into the woods.
Tall and skinny!
An arch in the making.
Teeny tiny mushroom. Those are individual fronds of moss around it.
I kept seeing these here and there - so tiny, but very pink! They're definitely in the legume family.
Spent rhododendron blossoms on the forest floor.
I kept thinking I was almost to the second arch... and then I kept going... and then I got to the ladder to go back up to the top of the ridge. WHAT?!! I remembered last time, going to the first arch... and then... walking around it to get to the second arch. Not following a trail....
I had to walk all the way back, and when I went to the bottom of the stairs I could see that there was a trail going the other way as well. And just a little way along, where another trail joined it, there was a sign saying "East Arch this way, West Arch that way"... we need to put that at the bottom of the stairs! It's hard to spot the trail going to the right, especially when there is an arch visible to the left!
Oh well.
I'm pretty sure those views earlier were taken from on top of this.
When all the rock is sandstone, much of the soil is sand. Something was living in it, too!
Once again I had a hard time getting a satisfying photo of this tree with its impressive spread of roots. I like to think this is the great tentacled beast guarding the cave...
Testing out my camera timer! Not so much for a selfie, but just to show the scale of this thing.
Now I was walking out the same way I went before... and I actually spotted a few things I missed the first time through!
I kept seeing green hickory nuts that had fallen and been nibbled on. I don't think I saw any that weren't nibbled on.
There were a few rhododendrons that weren't quite finished yet.
This may not look like much, but it's actually quite impressive. That tree is actually growing out of the edge of a huge tree stump - that's the other edge of it on the right. The original stump is nearly rotted away, but it was apparently about three feet across.
Yellow star grass! I was surprised to see this, because it was blooming much earlier in the summer as well.
I got back to the parking lot and found that I had bars on my cell phone, so I got my water bottle out of the car and called home for a while. As I was doing this, a bee started buzzing around my let. I kept moving but it kept following me. Finally I let it land, rather than make it angry by swatting at it. Apparently it really wanted to drink my sweat. I had to make a run for it to get in the car without company!
I had thought I might do a second short hike, but since I had done that long extra bit on this one I decided to save Pogue Creek State Natural Area for another time.
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