Mother's Day Adventure, 2013, at Wapsipinicon, Part II

Okay, here are the remaining photos I'd promised to share. (You can click on any of the photos to get a somewhat larger view of each photo.) And if you missed yesterday's post, you can see Part I by clicking here.

 After looking at moss and running around in an open field, we got into the car and drove a little further. When we saw that the creek had "grown" into a substantial river, we stopped again to look around. Livie's asking if we can actually see the bottom? No.

 

 She is so hyped up about being at a state park, she is yelling, "I need a plan, and a gorilla!!" (I don't know where she got THAT idea!)

 

 At this point, we saw some birds of prey flying around. It was cool! Livie had actually found some sort of hawk feather on the ground, which she was very curious about. One bird overhead looked like a bald eagle! (And some crows/ravens circling around, too.) I tried getting a photo of the eagle, but it had landed in the trees across the river, and my little camera wasn't zooming in clearly. You can see its blurry image in the center of the photo.

 

 I'd gotten a blurry image of the eagle as it flew away. Bird watchers, is that a bald eagle?!! So cool! (Sorry it's so blurry. Again, it was across the river and high up, so I couldn't get a good shot with my little, bitty camera.)

 

 And then we saw another bird swooping down to, presumably, fish in the river. Again, it was on the other side, so I didn't get a non-blurry shot. I'm assuming it's some sort of heron? (I'm hoping TexWisGirl or Nancy will stop by and be able to make an educated guess.)

 On the other side of the "access" road/driveway (whatever you want to call the road), we saw these stairs. We decided to go up to explore. It was a good cardio workout, I can tell you that! It didn't faze Livie, though. She just charged right up.

 

 I, on the other hand, stopped to take photos. Oh, and see that "peak" behind the trees? Livie wanted to get up there. Okay. Let's go!

 

 Oh, here's the view from about 3/4 of the way up.

 We finally got to the top (we had to do a kind of curly-cue up at the top to get to that "overlook.") Livie proclaimed the view to be "extraordinary!!" And, "Why haven't we come here before?!" Good question. I assured her it wouldn't be the last time.

And here's our view as we left the park.