Nature Beyond the Back Yard
Yesterday, the fam and I went to the Blanchard Dam, a few miles outside of town. I enjoyed myself very much. I just wish Layla would have been in a better mood. I wanted to stay longer than we did. There was so much natural beauty there. The Blanchard Dam just may become a place I frequent often this summer.
This is a fairly common flower (above), I think, but it really does have great color. I like yellow anyway. Below is a wild raspberry. There were wild raspberry bushes all over in the woods leading down to the river bank. So vibrant. They looked so juicy and tempting. I have to laugh, in my younger years I would have just popped one into my mouth. Now, I think "...ahhh, better not." Hmph. Makes a pretty picture though.
These wild flowers were so pretty. I think this photo will become my desktop background for a while. 
This is the Blanchard Dam itself. Above the dam runs the Soo Line Trail. It runs from Morrison county, MN 114 miles on the southern route to Douglas county, Wisconsin. One of these days, I will probably walk over the dam to take some photos. I would love to go quite a ways on this trail, but since my knee is injured and awaiting a treatment plan, short walks and hikes are all I can do at the time. I can still day dream of what is out there to discover....
Okay, so one of the real reasons for visiting this dam is for rocks. Yes, rocks. Not the simple stone stack rocks like the picture above. I came across this rock stack while descending to the river bank. I love these, so I had to take a picture of it. Anyway, the rocks I am/was looking for are called Staurolites, or more commonly knows as "fairy stones" or "cross rocks". These are actually a crystal formation that is found only in a few places in the world. Lucky me to live close to them. I did find the staurolite crystals, left and right, but not the actual cross shaped crystal formation. I found one that looked like it was forming a cross shape, but only one side of the cross. If I ever find an actual cross rock, believe me, there will be a picture here.
This is a fairly common flower (above), I think, but it really does have great color. I like yellow anyway. Below is a wild raspberry. There were wild raspberry bushes all over in the woods leading down to the river bank. So vibrant. They looked so juicy and tempting. I have to laugh, in my younger years I would have just popped one into my mouth. Now, I think "...ahhh, better not." Hmph. Makes a pretty picture though.
These wild flowers were so pretty. I think this photo will become my desktop background for a while. 
This is the Blanchard Dam itself. Above the dam runs the Soo Line Trail. It runs from Morrison county, MN 114 miles on the southern route to Douglas county, Wisconsin. One of these days, I will probably walk over the dam to take some photos. I would love to go quite a ways on this trail, but since my knee is injured and awaiting a treatment plan, short walks and hikes are all I can do at the time. I can still day dream of what is out there to discover....
Okay, so one of the real reasons for visiting this dam is for rocks. Yes, rocks. Not the simple stone stack rocks like the picture above. I came across this rock stack while descending to the river bank. I love these, so I had to take a picture of it. Anyway, the rocks I am/was looking for are called Staurolites, or more commonly knows as "fairy stones" or "cross rocks". These are actually a crystal formation that is found only in a few places in the world. Lucky me to live close to them. I did find the staurolite crystals, left and right, but not the actual cross shaped crystal formation. I found one that looked like it was forming a cross shape, but only one side of the cross. If I ever find an actual cross rock, believe me, there will be a picture here.
posted by Betsy Bryant at
7:10 AM
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