The next morning I awoke early to find the river shrouded in a blanket of fog. It was quite beautiful!
Robert was up next, and we sat by the river for a while, until we decided the cold wet chill could be easily overcome by a trip into Eureka Springs for a hot breakfast of eggs and coffee. We drug Rod from the tent and headed into town, dogs in tow.
After a satisfying breakfast, we decided to make a foray to Lake Leatherwood, where apparently a population of Collared Lizards still proliferates in its remnant glade habitat. We set off on the four mile hike around the lake, and about 3/4 of a mile in Rod discovered this pygmy rattlesnake (which the dogs and I had already walked past).
As I was getting artistic with my camera on the bridge over the lake's spillway...
... Rod found two more pygmy rattlesnakes coiled together, post-copulation?
We didn't find a single collared lizard, but did find some ground skinks, fence lizards and a northern water snake. As far as birds go, it was pretty quiet - still too early for migrants?
After we were hot and sweaty and pretty tuckered out, we headed back to the river for a cool dip. We weren't back for half an hour and Rod discovered a northern water snake that he had to get his hands on:
We headed into Eureka once more for a good Mexican dinner, then built the most perfect fire to wind down the evening. Monday morning we headed back to Fayetteville before seeing Robert off. What a great weekend!
