Tale of Two Springs - Part Two

So now it is the first week of April and we are back in Ely. For Ely the weather has gotten very warm for this time of year but as you can see, this is not the same spring that we had last week in San Miguel. On Wednesday we decided to have a hike and a picnic on the Bass Lake trail so we packed up the troops and headed off to the trail.

As we were walking the first thing we noticed is that the snow had melted significantly, and the creeks that had been frozen over just two weeks ago were starting to run. As the image below shows there still is ice but we now are having some run off.



Then as we came around a bend we saw the first of the new spring growth. This plant is something the locals call Princess Pine, but it really isn't a "pine" tree, but it sure looks like it.






The Bass Lake trail then runs down to High Lake and although the ice was still very thick on Bass Lake you can see that it is starting to recede on High Lake. It is always a happy time when the ice does finally drop as it really means that we have started the transition of the seasons.








As the trail continues around Bass Lake you come to Dry Lake Falls where the creek from Dry Lake runs into Bass Lake. During the summer this will be an area that will be very crowded with many of the tourists as it is usually very sunny and the children can sit in the creek and have the water running around them.

However at this time of year, the water is very cold, there are no tourists yet and we can enjoy the serenity of the seasons with out interruptions.