High Pond
I headed to Kickapoo today, and I wanted to get to an area I haven't been to lately, around High Pond, or High Lake, depending on which sign you ask. It's a nice area, a little out of the way, but (I thought) didn't have a whole lot of trails. I discovered that there are more trails than I realized, allowing a circuit around the whole lake for a decent walk.
The view from the bridge over the Middlefork at the main entrance.
When I included this picture in the set to download, I failed to consider that reducing it to web size would make it almost impossible to read the labels, making it less useful than I'd imagined. Oops. This sign board is to the right of the road at the park entrance. The black box just above the trash can says "you are here". Up on the map is east. The bridge in the first picture is just east of the sign. Keep going straight along that road all the way to the top of the map, and the blue blob on the right just before the road curves is High Pond. After the curve, the spur back west goes to the parking area where I started my High Pond loop. (Just FYI, the just barely visible white dotted line on the left edge of the map is the Out and Back trail, and the mountain bike area is off the left side of the map (i.e., north) from there.)
Fall colors on Long Lake/Pond to the right of the main road at the entrance.
This little buckeye demanded I take his picture.
A group of geese on Long Lake. Canada geese have become so common, a nuisance in fact, that I can forget how handsome they are.
A view of the concession building on Long Lake at the entrance.
Now we leave the entrance area and move on to the target area for the day. For some reason I'm really noticing and loving the cypress trees as they turn color this fall. This one is right by the parking area at High Pond; I took a lot of pictures of it from various angles.
This is a view of the bottom of that cypress with its knees.
From the fishing dock.
Looking under that special cypress again to catch the reflection of a maple in the pond.
This particular goose was being very noisy. He was also being photogenic.
You know how it is with me and grass. I need to bring this into Photoshop and brighten it up, but I think it's good enough to post.
Another spectacular view of the pond and the fall colors.
As I came around the pond, I found this branch of trail that I'd somehow never followed before. It turns out to be the main loop that goes around the pond.
You can actually just see this fungus in the previous patch, but I thought a closeup would make a good Halloween picture.
As the path loops around, it passes by a big picnic area. I had no idea there were any staircases like this at Kickapoo.
More photogenic geese at the east end of the pond. These are not the same steps as the previous shot -- just a few steps to a little fishing dock.
As I rounded the pond, I realized that there was a great blue heron in this already nice view.
High Pond is about as far from the west entrance as you can get in the main part of the park. As I was driving back to the park entrance, I passed some wild turkeys.
On my way out of the park (which is actually when I stopped to photograph the map board at the top), I walked through the picnic area. This broken walnut tree called for a picture.
The view from the bridge over the Middlefork at the main entrance.
When I included this picture in the set to download, I failed to consider that reducing it to web size would make it almost impossible to read the labels, making it less useful than I'd imagined. Oops. This sign board is to the right of the road at the park entrance. The black box just above the trash can says "you are here". Up on the map is east. The bridge in the first picture is just east of the sign. Keep going straight along that road all the way to the top of the map, and the blue blob on the right just before the road curves is High Pond. After the curve, the spur back west goes to the parking area where I started my High Pond loop. (Just FYI, the just barely visible white dotted line on the left edge of the map is the Out and Back trail, and the mountain bike area is off the left side of the map (i.e., north) from there.)
Fall colors on Long Lake/Pond to the right of the main road at the entrance.
This little buckeye demanded I take his picture.
A group of geese on Long Lake. Canada geese have become so common, a nuisance in fact, that I can forget how handsome they are.
A view of the concession building on Long Lake at the entrance.
Now we leave the entrance area and move on to the target area for the day. For some reason I'm really noticing and loving the cypress trees as they turn color this fall. This one is right by the parking area at High Pond; I took a lot of pictures of it from various angles.
This is a view of the bottom of that cypress with its knees.
From the fishing dock.
Looking under that special cypress again to catch the reflection of a maple in the pond.
This particular goose was being very noisy. He was also being photogenic.
You know how it is with me and grass. I need to bring this into Photoshop and brighten it up, but I think it's good enough to post.
Another spectacular view of the pond and the fall colors.
As I came around the pond, I found this branch of trail that I'd somehow never followed before. It turns out to be the main loop that goes around the pond.
You can actually just see this fungus in the previous patch, but I thought a closeup would make a good Halloween picture.
As the path loops around, it passes by a big picnic area. I had no idea there were any staircases like this at Kickapoo.
More photogenic geese at the east end of the pond. These are not the same steps as the previous shot -- just a few steps to a little fishing dock.
As I rounded the pond, I realized that there was a great blue heron in this already nice view.
High Pond is about as far from the west entrance as you can get in the main part of the park. As I was driving back to the park entrance, I passed some wild turkeys.
On my way out of the park (which is actually when I stopped to photograph the map board at the top), I walked through the picnic area. This broken walnut tree called for a picture.