Forty-odd SR Walkers (Some of us are!) hiked out to the Sandstone Point staircase and back on a mostly dry 60-odd degree day.

 We had one dog with us.

 Yes, there is going to be a sun hole in the canopy at this spot on the Campanula boardwalk.

 Jack in the pulpits are peaking along the boardwalk.

 Purple phlox is popping everywhere.

 SR Walkers descending onto the Wildcat Canyon rim boardwalk.

 An east rim view of the canyon floor shows that the Illinois River has left the canyon to Wildcat Creek. There might also be some "ant" tracks in the silt the river left behind. 

 Raindrop impressions and worm trails (protrails?) on the East Bluff trail means that we are the first walkers here today.

 That "hole" in the SR dam is actually the only closed gate. the other nine are mostly out of the water!

 Sandstone Point is the best place along the Bluff Trail to stand on the Park's bedrock.

 A freshly showered bird'sfoot violet on Sandstone Point.  The leaf shape gives this plant its name.

 The trailside burl that we have named "Milton".

 Crossing Lone Tree Creek on the River Trail back towards the Lodge.

 Look! There is a bird's nest in the "snake tree". Look closer!

 SR Walkers probably talk more than we walk.

 A view across Wildacat Creek to the canyon's headwall.

 Wildcat Creek has somehow separated the "hiking boots" from the "rubber boots".

 The channel marker buoy that arrived at the mouth of Wildcat Creek with last year's floods has moved 100-yards further up the creek this year.

 There is more than one reason to call it a River Trail!

The ball blossoms of the sarsaparilla are appearing uder the plant's leaf stem.

The Mayapple blossoms are also beginning to pop under this plant's umbrellas.

 My personal patch of shooting stars just above French Canyon.

French Creek is particularly frothy...

 ...as it disappears down the falls into lower French Canyon.

If this is the only downside of having a flowering crabtree then I'll take it!

I will leave you with a quote from W.J. Holland:

 "Happy is the person who has acquired the love of walking for its own sake."