Exploring a Dry Creek Bed

One of the activities in our Incredible Creeks study suggests you take a walk in a dry creek bed. With the extreme drought our area is facing, a dry creek bed isn’t hard to find. Nor are the treasures – as long as you’re willing to sift through the fallen leaves! Here’s a peak into our treasure-filled walk recently.

One of the first interesting finds was a gall - which is a place where a gall fly lays eggs inside a goldenrod stem. The larvae live inside the gall during the spring and winter, then eat their way out when spring arrives.

You can see several small fossil shells in this rock. I'm hoping to take this photo (or maybe the rock) to my former archaeologist preacher to see if he can tell me what the larger fossil in the middle might be.

My daughter broke open a hard wildflower pod to find the softest, fuzziest seeds we've ever seen.

This is the skull from one of our momma cows who didn't make it through childbirth a few years ago.

This leaf is next to my daughter's hand - her hand is bigger than mine. These big leaves were everywhere!

This is what three-year-olds do on nature walks!

Normally, the little creek we walked would empty into this much larger creek. Although the water level is down considerably, it still holds plenty of water. That's a beautiful sight right now in our area!