Thomas Canyon

Our last hike in the Lamoille Canyon was the one right behind the car…Thomas Canyon.  The trailhead was right in front of our campsite and all we had to do was start walking.   

The climb up started immediately and only leveled off when we’d reached the end of the canyon…a typical box canyon.  Steep rock walls and surprisingly a creek with running water this late in the summer...and water falls.

Breached

Along the way we discovered the beaver dam that Patty, the campground host, mentioned a few days ago.  According to Patty this dam had been in existence at least 20 years until this past Spring when it was breached and torn apart. 

The thing was tremendous…at least six feet tall from the front side and the largest beaver house that you can imagine.  Since the breach the beavers had started to rebuild parts of their dam.  Hopefully they will be able to survive the upcoming winter without their deep pond and huge house.

Beaver House

Bill on top of beaver dam

Glowing tree

There are also a number of trees in the Canyon that appear to ‘glow’ when the sun is shining behind them…weird looking.  Quite a large number of these trees are growing up the hillsides which creates a surreal glow in the morning sunshine.

When we pulled over we could see these feather-like flowers (or seeds) all over the entire branch. These darn things were so neat we spent FOREVER trying to get a shot of the glowing trees.  For whatever reason we found them fascinating.  They are called mountain mahogany.  We had never heard of these trees or have seen them anywhere else.  Maybe we had just missed the seed stage which creates the glow...otherwise the tree is unremarkable in its appearance. 
 

Seed pods

Fuzzy pods

Falls on Thomas Creek

We headed up the stream bed for a bit rather than follow the main trail so we could take in a few waterfalls.  Cooper enjoyed getting his tired toes cooled off in the water…he still wonders why we stop so much.  Surprisingly there was still a good bit of water coming down from the upper canyon. Poor beavers must be going nuts with the sound of rushing water.  Bill even stopped back by the water falls on the return trip. 

He bushwhacked upstream to a particularly difficult spot trying to get the perfect blurred out photo of the falling water.  The sun was not being particularly helpful since you really need clouds or no sun shining on the water to be effective, but he gave it 200 shots to get a good one.

 

Cooling off
 

On the return back down to our campsite Cooper decided he’d had enough of the heat and stretched out in one of the beaver pools to cool off.   

Too bad the rest of us could not do the same, but the water was really quite cold.  He didn’t seem to notice as he laid there waiting on Bill to catch up.

We really enjoyed our time here in Lamoille Canyon…hope to come back in Spring and catch the snow melt which brings with it more water falls.  Tomorrow we work our way toward Denver…first stop Salt Lake City.  We cannot wait to see what craziness the drivers do this time through Utah.

Yellow warbler

Yellow Rumped Warbler- female

Mountain Mahogany

The end of the canyon

Shaking out the burrs