Table Rock Lake
/On a sunny day last week, we headed south to Table Rock State Park – situated on the shore of Table Rock Lake. The drive down had many roadcut cliffs….curving highway…scenic. We parked near the boat launch and walked along the paved lakeside trail. There were frequent ad hoc trails going all the way down to the lake…using ‘stairsteps’ in rock down to water level. We saw at least one person fishing. There was rain in the previous days so the eroded rock held small pools of water.
The first side trail we took down to the water included a surprise. There was a whole watermelon at the water’s edge! How did it get there? Did someone put it in the water to cool down then forget it was there? We wondered how long it had been at the edge of the lake since we are well past the season for them to be in grocery stores. It was the only ‘trash’ we saw during our walk!
I was fascinated by the intensity of the color on wet rocks compared to the rocks that had dried out on the shore.
The water itself changed the way the rocks look too. These two pictures are of the same area but the water acts as a distorting lens!
I turned aroud and took some zoomed images of drying debris, a chuck of rock, and the layers in one of the ‘stairs’ – then made my way back up to the paved trail.
We started looking at the sights along the trail. There were limestone boulders along the edge and I started noticing inclusions in some of them. Some areas were forested…with enough underbrush to support communities of lichen and moss….and, my favorite, turkey tails (shelf fungus).
We didn’t see a lot of birds – and I didn’t get any pictures. It was not the best time of day for bird watching. I saw a nuthatch, crows, and turkey vultures…without even going into ‘birding’ mode.
There were not a lot of people in the park this time of year even though the day was warm enough for a picnic (there was one family with one children that was enjoying a snack). It is easy to imagine the place being full of people when the temperature is warmer…and everyone would enjoy the activities on or in the water!
Now to plan some other day trips….take advantage of any pleasant day to do a little more exploring of places within an hour of where we live!
