Whatcha Got in the Ice Box?

So I have been a slacker in posting on my blog, and now I am trying to make up for lost time.

Back in March we went hiking in Red Rock canyon. It is right here in town and has so many trails to explore. We picked Ice Box Canyon for our first time out. The trail goes from the center of the canyon back into the narrows, ending at a water fall that flows in early spring from the melting run off from Mt. Charleston.

Here we are getting started on the trail.

There are a lot of areas on the trail that cross over the creek. At one point I looked down and found this rock. The pattern reminds me of Indian pottery you see in museums, and at the same time it also reminds me of the markings on tropical fish.

Here's Joe on a rock in the creek....or is it a crick?

We were fascinated by the juniper bushes with these light pink berries.

I got some good close ups. I love the light.

This is one of the natives we met along the way.

The hike followed the creek and involved a lot of rock hopping and jumping in puddles.

We made it to the end of the line and got to see the end of the season for the falls. Those are some other hikers who got in my shot.

I love this shot because you can see the spray lit up by the light.

On the hike out I got some shots of more plants.

I loooooove this close up. Either my photography skills have significantly improved or I was just very lucky with the lighting that day. Gee, wonder which it was. ;)

Before we headed for home we hid a geocache among those rocks. Right on the other side of this is a steep drop to a creek below, so we named the cache Stream Overlook.

It was a great hike and we have some good photos to remember it by. I made the tropical fish rock my new desktop background.