Snow Bowl State Forest - Part 2

We'd investigated the rock wall (see yesterday's post), so began making our way along the trail in the other direction. The path had numerous tiny, red and yellow mushrooms:

And these tiny yellow. fungal fingers. I've searched the internet to identify them and it appears that they are Clavulinopsis fusiformis, commonly known as golden spindles, spindle-shaped yellow coral, or spindle-shaped fairy club:

The trail took us back into the forest:

And around to the rear of the rock wall. I decided not to go up there and look down. I'm too clumsy and so are the dogs:

So we began hiking back toward the car. The dogs were as happy and excited as they were on our trip to the rock wall:

Clover did a bit of extra exploring:

And I came upon this patch of leafy, ferny moss, studded with orange gems of tiny fungi:

The forest smelled of pines, it was sunny and breezy, and all was right with the world:

The ferns and lowbush blueberries beneath the pines looked so inviting that we made a side trip to explore:

Long legged Seamus led the way:

There aren't a lot of blueberries this year, but there were more than enough to provide me with a tasty snack:

But our hike was almost over. We continued on the trail until we reached our parked car, loaded up and headed back to the farm:

Snow Bowl State Forest - Part 1

I'd noticed a sign for the Snow Bowl State Forest when I recently drove to Tupper Lake. I looked it up online when I got home and learned that it was a popular destination for rock climbers. So one fine day I took the dogs there to investigate:

The old road, now a foot trail, took us through both hardwood and pine forests:

And then the trail angled off to the left and down into a deep valley, likely the Snow Bowl:

A happy Daphne clowned around on the soft moss:

And then, right there in front of us, was a rock wall. For size comparison, notice Fergus on the bottom left of the photo:

Of course we all got up close to the base of the wall:

I quickly discovered (again) that my braces rendered me quite clumsy, so I didn't do any rock climbing. Seamus and I stayed at the base of the wall, but Clover, Fergus and Daphne had a grand time, climbing like mountain goats:

The shear face of the wall was broad as well as tall, so we walked farther along to investigate:

There was a sort of trail along the base:

Fergus, king of the canine rock climbers:

The scenery was exquisite:

But the trail which took us along the wall also went in another direction. I wasn't going to leave until we'd investigated that also, but I'll post about that tomorrow: