My family headed home this morning. I headed down to the Palmer Creek Unit for an overnight hiking trip with ranger Tyler. The spot where we chose to camp was a three mile hike in. We then spent We were surrounded by clouds unleashing rain and thunder, yet escaped with only some brief sprinkles where we were. A gorgeous day with incredible skies and plenty of adventure. After setting up camp, we headed out on what turned into a 5+ mile hike, with lots of elevation and scrambling. Took a rather precarious route to the top of the rim, then hiked along above the ridge among the many calcedony dikes. The ground was littered with pieces of broken calcedony, Tyler apty likened the experience to walking on razor blades. The stuff is hard with sharp, jagged edges; a fall could have brutal results, making the downward hike on the piles of loose calcedony rather interesting. We worked our way over to an area where the formations rose higher, containing layers of rock that are not found in the North Unit or Stronghold. At the rim, the drop is steep and immense. Looking the other direction, there are rolling hills of grass and calcedony. We hiked back to camp around dinner time, ate, then hiked around the nearby buttes to watch sunset. Played some cribbage back at camp until it was dark, then hiked again by the light of the half moon, which cast deep shadows all around. Spectacular.
A portion of the Sandhill Crane migration.
Looking in towards Palmer from the highway.
One of my favorite trees, now broken in two.
The hike into Palmer.
Back end of a buried car. There were two others. Not sure of the explanation or history here.
Near the campsite.
Climbed up this line of buttes.
Looking south, opposite the images above.
Calcedony fields.
If anyone knows what this rock is, please tell me!
Area we hiked to.
Hard to tell that there's a steep drop past these rolling hills.
Looking back to where we were.
Calcedony dike.
Calcedony underfoot.
The way we climbed up.
The way we went down.
Yup, right down this finger.
Tyler, half way down.
Looking back up at our path down.
Rewarded with a rainbow at the end of the day.
My palatial three-man tent. A bit heavy for the hike in.
Tyler between our tents. His made much more sense.
