Blood Mood, Lunar Eclipse 4/14/14

 

I decided to stay up late and watch the lunar eclipse. Not long ago we had a partial eclipse that I documented, but I believe this is my first total eclipse. Huh, I thought I had posted about it, but I guess I wasn’t thrilled with the results, being a partial and all. I do have a post about the last solar eclipse here.

Unfortunately, I decided to wait until right when it started to head outside, so I didn’t get a good full before shot. But I am pretty thrilled with what I did capture.

 

About this point I decided it was time to adjust the setting on the camera to start capturing the blood moon.

As you can see that dramatically changed what we were looking at.

And we have the full eclipse. The blood moon.

And here it is with Spica (bright star to the right) and Mars (top right).

I was hoping to stay up late enough to watch the whole thing uncover again, but I was tired so I called it a night.

I put together this little compilation that shows the first half of the event. Really fun.

From what I hear this is the 1st of 4 total eclipses we will get to enjoy over the next 2 years. That is pretty exciting! Of course I am going to go out and see it.

Barnard Creek

I really didn’t think there was going to be much to the trail but have been wanted to do it for a little while now so off we went. Last time I tried to do this I started at the Parrish Creek Trailhead and tried to hike the Bonneville Shoreline Trail over. Today we found the Rockwood Trail. There isn’t a parking lot, but there is room on the road to park.

Unfortunately this meant we had to hike up the steep foothills to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. It is only about .2 miles but it was pretty steep.

However that does mean you are quickly above the neighborhoods and getting a nice view. Looks like they are burning phragmites.

Pretty gnarly nest.

After a short jaunt on the BST we found a trail heading up towards the canyon.

After some more open hillside hiking eventually the trail dips down into the scrub oak filled canyon.

And before long the creek itself.

A fun rock outcropping.

I was just thinking that this trail can’t be used very often, and then there is a bridge. Alrighty then, guess I was wrong. It does seem pretty thin though.

See, pretty thin.

Strange looking rock next to the creek.

There is a nice little camp spot with a fire pit nestled between this small cave a pretty creek.

If I remember correctly there was another bridge before here, but here there is not one. It was a pretty easy spot to cross though.

Couple of nice cascades here.

Starting to hit some pines.

Mossy rock!

I think I caught this better on the way down, but eventually you will hit a very large rock, with another crossing. The crossing is easy. However, the already pretty steep trail is about to get even more steep.

Another mossy rock. After that long steep section it finally flattened out a little. Good, because I don’t think we could handle much more UP.

And just around the corner is this lovely waterfall. I just love the mossy alcove behind it.

Roxy checks it out.

I am glad we made it this far. Really neat little waterfall.

The trail continues past this, but we honestly didn’t expect to get this far today, and it was really steep and slick to get above the waterfall, so we decided it was time to turn around. Might have to return and see what else this canyon has to offer.

The cascades below.

Twisted trees.

And we’re already back to the big rock. Pretty quick return trip! Due to how steep that section of trail is, I suspect there might be another waterfall, or cascade, but if there is, I couldn’t see it.

View down the canyon.

There are a few rockslide areas, here the trees caught one.

Something a little ways off trail caught my eye, and I found a random little camp site.

On the way up and down could here, and kept getting glimpses of a waterfall below. The trail never did lead to it, but I thought we might be able to see it from a bridge I saw below.

Quick look back at the canyon.

After we reached the BST again we decided to hike towards the bridge to see if we could see the waterfall.

Well, it’s a better shot but still not great. Luckily there appears to be a trail back.

This trail is much thinner and a little tougher, but it follows some nice cascades.

And we’re here! Short little trail.

Pretty neat waterfall! I wonder if that part in the middle is just a shelf, or if it’s bowl shaped and there is a pool up there.

Rather pretty bonus waterfall. I am glad we sought it out.

And getting back to the BST offers a lovely view below.

Well that was a lovely hike, I am super glad we explored this little canyon. It was definitely a little on the tough side but wasn’t very long, for what we did. According to my pedometer app, it is about a mile to the waterfall, and then an additional .15 miles (from where the original trail began on the BST) to the second one so about 2 and a half miles total today.

Considering it was pretty, and had 2 pretty little waterfalls and was abandoned, I am going to go with 8 squirrels. Losing one for difficulty, and one for thinness.

As for difficulty I am going with a DR4 there were a lot of steep uphill sections and some stream crossings, which while not bad this time of year might be a little rough during high runoff.