Evening Hike

Its going to take a few posts to share all the wonderful things we saw tonight.
With about 2 1/2 hours of light left in the day we headed out for a short hike. Emery had to work today but he was still willing to take me out to take pictures of the wildflowers.
We ended up hiking a few miles and it was beautiful in the woods as the sky grew darker. At the waters edge we sat in total silence. The water lapping at the shore line. Looking out over the water with the sky changing color and reflecting in it. The lake reminded me of those perfect Java Scripts you see of moving water. It seemed a bit surreal.
The crows and vultures heading for their nighttime resting spots, cawing and complaining about who has the best branch. Frogs began to sing their rhythmic notes. When we stopped for a bit of a snack as meal time arrived while we were deep in the woods, I thought about the silence of the moment. No sounds except for those of nature, so perfectly tuned to the moment. It occurred to me that had I opportunity to just sit there for several hours in this silence, listening only to my own breath and hearing my own heartbeat, I knew there would be some enlightenment. With a bit of a silent laugh, the moment seemed a bit like some scene from the TV show Kung Fu and I was suddenly " Grasshopper" a student of life.
All too soon we realized that in order to make it back with any light for the trail we had to leave right then. No hours left for us to sit in silence. My "Kung Fu" moment would have to wait till another time.
Wet rocks combined with mud demands care on the trail and in darkness it would have not been safe.
I took 152 pictures so had to really narrow it down on what to share with you all.
Just as we pulled out of the state park, it began to drizzle so it appears we timed our departure just about perfect.

A snack by the waters edge
Emery on the trail, (looking pretty good for being 60 in a couple months)
We have lots of fossils in this area and this one was part of the rocky trail.
The trail as evening came on