Silverwood lake

We’ve had a lot of desert in the last few weeks. They’re hot and dry, with resident creatures that are seldom seen. Today, for a change, we’re going to a lake and we’ll have green areas near the water that may attract more animals and birds.

This is Silverwood lake, a reservoir created in 1971 in the San Bernardino Mountains that is run as a California State Park.

 We arrive near the lake shoreline and there are lots of birds, many of which we’ve seen before, but plenty to observe nonetheless. One dfferent species is the Acorn Woodpecker. We see numbers of them tapping away at certain trees. This is one of them- what is it doing?

Magnifying the image, the tree is peppered with holes: the woodpecker is storing food for winter in the tree bark.

Being an Acorn Woodpecker, it’s storing acorns, but the size of these acorns is something else. Jane is holding one in her hand.

The lakeside walk is delightful, and on an easy  tarmac path.

There are pleasant views wherever you look, and very peaceful. Black bears are reputedly in the area but none seen. Clearly all are somewhere in the woods on a picnic.

At this point, it’s worth comparing our previous day’s walk in Mule Canyon near the campsite. This is the desolate entrance to Mule Canyon. We saw lots of off-roaders, but no mules.

Looking back down the canyon we see dust-devils swirling off a dried-up lake bed. It’s next to a rattlesnake conservation area- but we didn’t see any of those either. 

But back to Silverwood. The lake isn’t named after a type of tree, but after a certain Ted Silverwood who was a local conservationalist. The trees were especially beautiful as many were showing signs of autumn colours: with the lake being at 3,500 feet they would already have got some colder nights. 

Yes, a splendid day out. Tomorrow we head for Las Vegas and are handing back the motorhome on Thursday 26^th October. In spite of running over the block of wood, we’ve had a great adventure.