Camping at Garner: Day 1 & 2
Camping at Garner: Day 3 & 4
Camping at Garner: Day 5

{All pictures taken within Garner State Park.}
In the morning of last full day of camping, Dan heard something crash into the pop up shelter of ours. He found this on the ground, stunned.


A Cicada. I quickly snapped a picture with my ever-ready camera. He then "let it go".

Only, it didn't go. It crawled onto the top of his finger and rested for awhile. I was amazed and snapped pictures.

Soon after this picture, he (or is it a she?), took off.

And, then we took off. We decided to go back to the visitor's center. I wanted to buy a souvenir. We ended up in the garden again for a few minutes.



Monarch butterfly


Snow-on-the-Mountain



Silver-leaf Nightshade. I'm in love with these and will see if I can't find and plant some when we have a house to call our own.


Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly.


I spied this butterfly and it was quite unusual to me in that it was pale pink. I haven't been able to identify this critter.


A tired Border Patch butterfly

A Bumblebee in the Butterfly Weeds.

We then took off to explore the dam area within the park. We always loved taking pictures in this area, especially in the mornings when people are not quite ready to go swimming.

Dan crossed the river with his mega expensive camera. He rarely looses his balance; but still, he was daring to do this.


I did NOT dare do what he did. I could visualize myself slipping and falling ruining my camera in addition to breaking an arm. Huh. No thank you. Instead, I watched my photographer while I went exploring on a pathway below the Dam.

Can you see my wonderful photographer busy snapping away? What a beautiful setting!


I found this tree further on down below the Dam and made Dan take a picture of me. And then, I made him stand in there while I take a picture of him. I don't think he was too thrilled. ha!


You don't see many squirrels in "new Garner"; but, they are a common sight in "old Garner".

One last thing I did was try to "document" the Ant Lions around our campsite. They are also known as Doodlebugs or Sand Dragons. You see, I saw one busy at work and managed to capture it several days ago. They are extremely tiny and practically invisible to the human eye because they often work below the dirt/sand. Here it is:


We had put it in a bowl and I practiced taking pictures of it with my Macro lens very quickly and then we put it back where I found it.

Well, on this last day of camping, I wanted to capture a pictorial story to go with it.


These Ant Lions industriously create these perfect tiny sand traps in which ants will fall into and get trapped. The Ant Lion will almost immediately come out of hiding, capture it, and devour it.

I had Dan get a tiny little stick to torment this little Ant Lion hiding at home. I snapped picture after picture trying to capture sand flying. No luck.

Imagine my surprise and exhilaration upon opening this picture at home on my laptop:


I had caught the monster coming out of hiding to attack! Awesome!

Priceless!