Our rental house in Rock Hill, South Carolina was recently vacated by a tenant that lived there for 10 years. We had to put our road trip on pause and return to where we started 3 years ago in order to refurbish the house and get it ready for a new tenant. We arrived August 1st and will likely be here until the end of September. While working on the house we've been camping outside of town in a couple nearby state parks and in a county park located in Rock Hill. Even though the work I've been doing wears me out most days, I've still been doing my walks everyday. It's been a while since I posted any of my walk pictures, so I thought I share some today. I hope this eases your withdrawal pains, shirfleur. 🙂
Photo Captions:
1) This is Lake Crawford at Kings Mountain State Park. This is the first campground we stayed at when we arrived in the area.
2) Clark Fork Creek empties into Crawford Lake.
3) This is Lake Crawford Road, which is where I took my walks while we were staying there.
4) There are lots of Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) in the forest at Kings Mountain State Park. This one was eating a mushroom when I encountered it. These turtles live on land and can live more than 100 years.
5) You know how interesting I find wildflowers. This is an Atlantic pigeon wing (Clitoria mariana).
6) Lots of these wildflowers are growing at Kings Mountain State Park. They're called Carolina elephant's-foot (Elephantopus carolinianus), although I'm not sure why. They don't exactly look like an elephant's foot. Maybe it's the shape and/or texture of the leaf.
7) Red velvet ants (Dasymutilla occidentalis) are not ants at all. They're actually members of the wasp family. Females (like this one) are flightless and do not have wings, which makes them resemble ants. If you see one, don't touch it. They have a nasty sting.
8) We also stayed at Ebenezer Park in Rock Hill, SC. It's a county park that allows camping. This is the beach on Lake Wylie where swimming is allowed at the park. It's only open on weekends. I took this picture on a weekday when the beach was closed.
9) This is a Carolina praying mantis (Stagmomantis carolina). It's the state insect of South Carolina. These insects sometimes practice cannibalism, even after mating.
10) Purple Passionflowers (Passiflora incarnata) are my favorite wildflower. The fruits (passionfruit) are edible.
11) This is violet wood-sorrel (Oxalis violacea), which was used medicinally and as a food source by Native Americans.
12) Here's a spurred butterfly pea (Centrosema virginianum).
13) Carolina horsenettle (Solanum carolinense) is considered a weed. Every part of this plant is poisonous if it's eaten.
14) This is an orangestriped oakworm (Anisota senatoria). It's actually a colorful moth when it matures.
15) I saw a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) on the boat dock at Ebenezer Park.
16) This wildflower is related to morning glories, but is actually a wild potato vine. They're called Indian potatoes (Ipomoea pandurata). They're edible and are similar to sweet potatoes.
17) This picture wasn't taken while on my walk. I took this one sitting down while relaxing next to a campfire. I love campfires, even when it's really too hot outside, which it was on this occasion, but I find them very relaxing.
