Dog Run Hollow

Dog Run Hollow - April 9, 2015 

After sending off the blog from the Visitor’s Center yesterday afternoon, we returned to the campground and went on the Little Baldy Trail that leaves from a campsite just down the road from us. The Trail took us up Little Baldy, which is just across the lake from our campsite, and out to the dam that creates the Quannah Parker Lake on which our campground is located.

Quannah Parker Lake from the top of Little Baldy. Our campground is to the lower left.

Just down from the dam is a canyon. It was late afternoon; notice the shadows.

Frederick on the dam that was created by the CCC in the 1930s.

This morning we saw several turkeys just off in the woods. The male, in the middle, has his tail feathers spread to impress the three hens.

As we were driving to the trailhead this morning, we noticed all the lond-horned cattle running in a westerly direction - all headed the same way and in a hurry.

Looks like we’re herding the cattle. This is probably as close as we’ll ever get to being a cowboy  .

There were perhaps 100 head of cattle on the move.

Momma and baby.

Nice set of horns.

The cattle all headed for an adjacent pasture that was next to this herd of bison.

The Dog Run Hollow Trail is called a system because it is a series of four trails, all interconnected. 

Our target trail was called Bison Trail that took us by French Lake.

French Lake and the river that flows from it are all created by a series of dams.

At one point on the trail we were on a plateau that provided grazing for the bison. We found this deer antler in a small ravine.

I guess it’s a deer antler. We left it where we found it, which is what you are supposed to do.

An open part of the Longhorn Trail that connects to the Bison Trail. Those are the knobby Wichitaw Mountains in the background.

A friendly turtle that was in the middle of the trail about 20 feet from a stream.

I wonder if this coiled wire came down to create this “open range”?

This little bright green critter, an Eastern Collared Lizard, know locally as "Mountain Boomer", runs on it’s hind legs when it scurries away.

Indian Paintbrush

Verbena

About half way along Bison Trail is Lost Lake and this canyon below the dam.

The dam at Lost Lake. Individual stones make up the dam.

Following the river back to the trail head.

There is a Prairie Dog Town in the Wichitas. These are Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, sometimes referred to as the “Barking Squirrel” because of a variety of chirp sounds or “barks”. The Black-tailed prairie Dog is a “Keystone Species”. There are over 170 different vertebrate animals that depend directly or indirectly on the Prairie Dog for survival.

These seem to be used to having visitors. They are very industrious, engineers of the prairie, constructing series of interconnecting tunnels with foot-high craters that mark the burrow entrances.