A hike with friends (and eventually more wildflowers) at Cove Hollow

We had seen our friend Logan post pictures of hikes we had done almost the same day, so I reached out and suggested we could hike together at the same time on the same day instead.  We met up with Logan and friends at the Cove Hollow trailhead on Cedar Lake and went for a stroll.  I told Laura in the car that I had packed "light" on camera gear and wasn't going to get carried away taking pictures.  So, as you can imagine, here are nearly 50 pictures from the hike.  Oooops! 

Luckily Logan professed a love of macro photography and there's a fair number of macro shots in here.  

  

The waterfall wasn't flowing, but it was impressively tall!  One of the tallest drops that we have seen in the Shawnee.  We will certainly have to come back some other time.  Luckily there was still enough pitter-patter for it to meet Lucy's standard for feeding near water features while on hikes.

This little alcove had incredible lighting!  It caught my eye and I just had to figure out a few shots.  I'm glad I did because I got what is possibly my favorite photo of the year.  Or photo(s), I guess, because I'm not 100% settled on which I like best.  Currently, I prefer the first of these two.  Which one do you prefer?

We stopped by the lake and enjoyed the breeze before turning around and heading back.  This little fella tried to hitch a ride on my pants and took some encouragement to fly away.

I saw this red mite as we walked along. If you've never seen a red mite in the woods, it's probably because it is soooooo small.  But their vibrant color is so eye-catching.  So, I tried to push the camera to the limits of catching this mite that was the size of a large pinhead.  This one was moving a little too quickly to get a clear shot, but I think the potential is there.

I had either never seen or never noticed seeing jack-in-the-pulpit before, but there were several along the trail including a nice stand of them on some rocks by the lake.  I did my best to capture something close to the "golden spiral".

  

I was also on the lookout for mayapple blooms.  I see mayapples popping up like crazy during turkey season, but don't usually hike as much when the blooms are out.  The blooms were few and far between, but my dear Laura helped me find a few.

  

Between the baby feedings and my stopping for pictures despite vowing to keep it moving, I felt like we were really anchors that our friends were dragging (turns out they were happy we kept it easy that day).  It was about time to feed Lucy, so we parted ways with them and sat by the lake.  A few trees/shrubs with these lantern flowers were hanging over the water where we sat.  We had no idea what they were, but they were certainly interesting.  We eventually figured out what it was when we got home and looked it up.  Do you know?

  

  

Lucy is still a bit too young and weak to ride in the backpack during the full hike, so she rode on Laura's chest in the Ergo most of the way.  A short bit before the end of the hike, we put her in the backpack for a short training session.  She really seemed to enjoy the enhanced view, even if she isn't showing it here.