Today was a perfect hiking day in the Adirondacks. Nice and cool. No bugs yet. And not too muddy. We climbed Rattlesnake Mountain, in Willsboro — one of our favorites because the summit has a great view of Lake Champlain. The woods are so new right now, full of baby plants and wildflowers that only last a couple weeks. What a gift to have spent time with them today.
I love these tiny fern plants. They remind me of newborn babies — all alien-looking and new.
These pictures just captures the spirit of the Adirondacks — flowers growing on a rock!
We saw these gorgeous dark red Trillium plants all over.
There were a couple other cars at the trailhead, but we ended up having the summit to ourselves.
Check out the colors in these clouds!
On a hike around the summit, we found another rocky clearing where someone had created a garden of rock sculptures. It reminded me of a trip my husband and I took to Vancouver, BC. When we were biking around Stanley Park, we turned a corner and saw an incredible inuksuk (We didn’t know what it was called at the time; we thought it was just a big fancy pile of rocks.) It’s an Inuit tradition used as a directional marker. Sometimes today, we were told, they ‘re built for spiritual reasons, too, to remember and honor people. 
Cool, huh? We added a few stones to these and left them to surprise another group of hikers.
Spectacular photos! Thanks for taking us with you on your hike!
Kate, those photos are *gorgeous!* I’ve just, rather belatedly :O, “friended” you… when I saw that we share a birthday!! We’re off by 4 years, but I’m a July 3 baby, too! (Unless you’ve picked up the Australian habit of listing the date before the month, and you’re actually a March 7 birthday, which I’m sure is perfectly lovely, as well….)
Birthday
Hi Elizabeth! Yes, I’m a July 3rd person! Thanks for the friend add – I’m somewhat new to LiveJournal and loving it. I’ve enjoyed your blog and found your posts on the SCBWI board to be very helpful, too!
Great photos!
Hi Kate…LOVE your photos! I wish I got out as much as you seem to. Haven’t been on a ‘photo shoot’ for ages. Maybe I’m just lazy.
Judy