Checking on a Willow Creek tinaja

After the recent heavy monsoon rains, I went back to the large, deep tinaja on Willow Creek. The rain, though heavy, had been spotty, so I wasn't sure the tinaja would have been refilled. I was pretty sure it had been as soon as I got down to the creek, though.

This water is flowing, so I know the tinaja has to have been refilled.

It was a little tricky getting to the tinaja this time. It wouldn't have been if I didn't mind walking through water, but I do.

Too much water to jump across in many places.

There were some strange looking bugs in the water. Some of those strange ones looked even stranger because they looked like they had algae or something growing on them.

Strange looking bugs.

It's because of things like that that I carry much more water in my backpack than I think I'll need. Also, I collected some water from a tinaja near Tortilla Flat for Lauren to take to a biology lab. The students were supposed to bring in water from pet water dishes and things like that which probably have bacteria growing in them. The professor took one look at Lauren's water and told her she had better dilute it 10:1 before putting it in the petri dishes. She's the only one that had to do that. It only had the slightest tint of green. I thought it was a nice color. Anyway, it was full of coliform bacteria. No surprise there.

The rain also seems to have brought out the millipedes. They were all over the place. I saw two tarantulas in the road on the way home, too. Seems kind of early in the year for them.

One of many millipedes.

Most of the moss had greened-up, too. It looked kind of like a winter day. It didn't feel like it, though. The muggy heat was stifling.

Very green moss.

Click below for all of the pictures.

2013_07_22