Greenbo Lake State Park area.....

We left Ashland and drove north along the river towards Greenup to see the locks and dam. The road leading back to the locks was lined with these beautiful patches of sunflowers! Both sides of the road for the entire length! They are mixed with both yellow and darker ones.
A really pretty mixture!

Mike took pictures of the locks.......

.....while I chased around in the meadow that they leave unmowed except for paths to walk on. Both of us chased some black butterflies around and never did get a picture of them! Frustrating! I don't think they were swallowtails, but don't know what they were because they would never land.

I thought these were interesting

Headed to Greenbo Lake State Park which was out headquarters for last night.

From there we decided to drive to Carter Caves State Park. On the way we saw this old covered bridge off to the side of the road.

It isn't used for cars any more, but seemed very sturdy. It was originally built circa 1880 and then reconstructed in 1999. Wasn't sure what they meant by that (rebuilt the whole thing or just fixed it up?) Anyway.....it made for nice pictures.

The far end was covered in ivy or a vine of some sort.....very nice.....

.....and this butterfly took pity on me and landed at my feet.

While Mike signed in at the lodge where we are staying, I took pictures of this Catbird in the tree after these berries.

I'm not going to post pictures of the cave trip right now....maybe never. Caves are hard to take pictures of inside. It was a long walk, with lots of steps and slippery passageways, but very interesting.

On the way back to our lodge for dinner, we saw 2 deer in a little meadow off to one side of the road. Look at her ribs.

She was wary of our stopping on the road, but didn't move away.

The other one was much further away and appears to have spots.

Visited the boat launch area of the lake and I found this flower on the edge. Don't know what it is.

A tiny toad......only about an inch long.

Mike found these wings from a Widow Skimmer. I thought it was interestng that they are hooked together in one piece. They look ready to "clamp on ". You could really see the details holding them like this.

Well....it is morning....we are going for a walk before breakfast and then we will move on to a new park later today to spend tonight.