
There had been lots of Mountain Laurels in full bloom on the entrance road, but here at this higher altitude there were mostly just buds. But still they were beautiful:

A close up view of a cluster of Mountain Laurel buds:

And then I saw these red beauties in the understory beneath the tall Mountain Laurels. They looked very much like a miniature Mountain Laurel and, in fact, turned out to be Sheep Laurel, Kalmia angustifolia, a close relative (same genus) of its taller relative, the Mountain Laurel:

Here's a close up of some Sheep Laurel blossoms:

And just around a rocky bend in the trail I came across a few Mountain Laurels with a few open flowers:

The trail turned both steeper and rockier. I was beginning to huff and puff, but the two young Papillons ran from rock to rock like miniature mountain goats:

Just below the summit, we scrambled up and out onto a rocky overlook where I knew the view was good:

At its highest point, the dogs and I relaxed in the warm June sun:

And looked out over the valley below and from there across the Taconic Mountains:

When I arrived at this scenic overlook, I erred by saying I was looking out over the Hudson Valley. I later realized that I was already east of the Hudson River and looking eastward out over southwestern Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut. The lake I saw was Washining Lake, one of the Twin Lakes just north of Salisbury, Connecticut. In spite of my misidentifying of the landscape, the scene was lovely:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.