South Fork Safari

We took a drive up to the Summitville mine, behind the campground, to check it out. It’s a long, winding drive up the mountain…..on a dirt road (without guard rails) and did I mention it’s a winding road. The mine was active many years ago but is now part of the the Superfund clean-up due to a leak that occurred and contaminated a nearby stream. Lots of activity up there now with the clean-up process. 

It’s a beautiful drive up there…all 20 some miles of it. As we were turning around, at the mine, Linda noticed that one of our lug nuts was juuuust about ready to fall off. That was scary to think about. I quickly got the lug wrench out and tightened all of those suckers up before we started back down the mountain. On the way back, we went really slow to see what wildlife we could spot. Funny what you’ll see at 12 miles an hour and not at 20. All of the jeeps and atv’s that were flying up and down the mountain, on that road, probably never see a thing cause they are too busy (and making too much noise)with the thrill of going fast instead of slowing down and taking in the beauty.There are lots of folks boondocking too along the way.

See the baby grouse in the grass…..we could barely see their heads poking out of the grass. Mommy was very protective of them and kept them well hidden.

Nothing like camping with the cows….

In total I think we counted four doe, one buck with his horns in velvet, one mommy grouse and several babies and lots of cows. Saw a flock of really colorful birds but don’t know what those were. Had a really fun time on our safari, looking at all the animals on our way up and down the mountain.