More from our southern Illinois trip.....

It's been a busy week so far.....watching Wimbledon tennis every day, teaching crafts in VBS every night.  However, I still have some old stuff I never got posted from a couple short trips. We were heading for an area called "Garden of the Gods", but first stopped at Pounds Hollow and hiked the Rim Rock trail.  A very pretty area and it was a good workout for my new knee :-)

We spotted this deer by the road on the way in.

I liked this interesting gnarled tree.

More of a close-up shot.

"Whatever you do....don't back up, Mike!"

This whole area is build on high rocky cliffs.  Mike and I used to camp here when we first go married.....a long, long, long time ago!

I very carefully sneaked up on this snake to take a photo......before realizing that it was dead and posed there by someone.  Sure looked live to me!

Moss on the rocks.

Mushroom among the poison ivy.

A deep cleft in the rocks, but attractive to look at.

I believe it is called "fat man's squeeze".

We voted against going down all those stairs.....more of a workout than my knees wanted!

A Fritillary butterfly seen along the steps.

Ferns on the rock outcroppings.

Fungi on the cut log.

Indigo Bunting singing its heart out.

I was hoping to see some lizards!  Does he look fierce?

He was funny to watch doing his "push ups".  I think we were suppose to be scared and run away :-)

Maybe if he was a little larger.

Another deer in a field later on.  We never got to Garden of the Gods because it started raining.

We passed a huge mansion set way off the road, but it had cool gates!

When we got back to Henderson, Ky we stopped to check the eagles and heron.....

.....got there just as one of the eagles was flying away.  Not a good shot... sorry!

The other eagle is in the nest looking down (maybe at a chick?).  It is so far away that even with my extender lens, it is still too far away!  At least we know the eagles are there!

OK.....back to tennis again :-)