More from that hike

The "Billy Goat Trail" of Great Falls starts off on an elevated area above the Potomac River, and offers some great views.



When we got to a point overlooking this, I snapped this picture and

we decided we wanted to climb down and explore that far ridge. The third picture in my previous post is from the same point, but aimed a bit more to the right. Luckily there was an easy path down a little bit ahead on the trail. When we got down, I looked back up at the spot from which I had taken the picture 10 minutes earlier.



Once we were down that far, we wanted to get across the ridge to the edge of the Potomac river, but we had to cross some pretty nasty terrain to get there. (If you look at the top right of the snapped picture, you can see the fast-moving water we were trying to get to.)



Finally we got to the edge of all the rocks.


The river moves pretty fast


and it was nice dangling our feet in and enjoying the view.

Some cool wildlife:


We saw 2 of these black snakes; neither picture came out great. Some guy ahead of us on the trail nearly stepped on this one. The dude nearly fell over trying to avoid it, then freaked out big time. The snake pretty much ignored him.


This big old snapping turtle was sticking its head out of the water getting some air.


A little skink chilling on log.


Mean bastard of a turkey vulture.