THE MOANING LAKE

Lake Lowell & Deer Flat Wildlife Refuge in winter - a great place to explore, photograph and listen. The moving ice makes eerie moans and cracks and pings that sound like the cables snapping on a suspension bridge. It's also home to some of the finest old cottonwoods in the world. In summer the bald eagles and osprey hunt from them, but when the ice comes they head for the rivers. The lake is also home to an Ominous Lake Creature - somewhat like Nessie - who appears to follow us around the lake.

Lily gets her first ice walk and discovers a delightfully crunchy duck carcass. (She also wanders into the photographer's shot alot.) We walked the lenght on the dam on the ice, protected from the sub-zero windchill by the black basalt blocks of the dam. The lichens on the basalt remind me of a similar scene in the Galapagos exactly a year ago, with marine iguanas scraping the moss from the basalt.

Lake Lowell was completed in 1909 by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Civilian Conservation Corp and remains one of the largest off-stream reservoirs in the west. The top of the dam bears these decorative touches - little flowers made of rocks and pebbles. Most of the pebbles have been eroded or picked away, but I like to put a finger in the indent they left and imagine the leather-necked workman who laid in this finishing touch over one hundred years ago. Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge was also created in 1909 and supports thousands of wintering and migrating birds. Thanks FDR!