Mastodon Historic Site & St Francois State Park

Leaving Finger Lakes park and driving to St. Francois State Park:

It was a fairly uneventful drive and not very long. 

Along the way, we stopped in at Mastodon State Historic Site, only to find that they're closed on Monday and Tuesday!

We parked, put the kitties into the trailer, opened both roof vents, turned on the roof vent fans, and opened some windows on the shade side of the trailer, but since it was 89 outside, it quickly go to 94 inside the trailer!  Fortunately, Richard was monitoriung it and his watch notified him on the high temperature.  We care about our kitties!

Returning the the trailer, Richard grabbed the cats and put them into the truck with the AC running.  They seemed relieved.

None-the-less, Kelly got some pictures along the short, 1/4 mile, hike at the park.

Dwarf Larkspur or Spring Larkspur

Phlox divaricata, the wild blue phlox, woodland phlox, or wild sweet william

Glandularia, common name mock vervain or mock verbena

Lunaria annua, commonly called honesty or annual honesty

Lots of Honesty! We could all do with more Honesty!

Honeysuckle

Red Oak

Stylophorum diphyllum, commonly called the celandine poppy or wood poppy

Phlox divaricata, the wild blue phlox, woodland phlox, or wild sweet william

We then made our way to St. Francois State Park.  When we drove in and told them we were in sire 10, they told us, "You really don't want that site.  Let's move you to somewhere else."  We took their advice (after all, they know their campground better than we do!) and they moved us to site 4.  While we were looking that over, another camp host drove up in a little golf cart, so we discussed the pros and cons of all of the sites.  He very kindly drove us over to site 10 and we saw that while it's a drive-through site, it also has a huge mound in the middle!  We looked over many other sites and ultimately decided on a totally differnet site.  They don't currently have very many people here, so we had many choiuces.

Thus, we settled in and went on the usual hike down to the sand bar in the stream next to the campground, where Kelly found many cool rocks of interest!

We had seen this black butterfly in a few places and Kelly kept trying to photograph it, however it never seemed to settle down anywhere!  Finally, today, she had her chance and got some pictures of it!

Battus philenor, the pipevine swallowtail or blue swallowtail

Same butterfly as above, showing the underside of the wings

Aesculus glabra, commonly known as Ohio buckeye, Texas buckeye, fetid buckeye, and horse chestnut

Ornithogalum umbellatum, the garden star-of-Bethlehem, grass lily, nap-at-noon, or eleven-o'clock lady

American Robin

Phacelia purshii, known by the common names Miami mist, scorpionweed, and purple scorpionweed

Closeup of the same flower as above.  Interesting little fingers on the ends of the petals.

Here are some of the rocks found at the streem sand bar.  The lighting doesn't really show all of the sparkling in some of them.

That's all for tonight!  Tomorrow, we plan to go on a boat through through a cave!