Off the beaten path

Thanks to the holiday, I was able to take Kaylee for her afternoon walk while there was still plenty of daylight. I'd intended on just doing our usual loop, but when we got to about the halfway point, which also happens to be the top of a fairly long uphill stretch, I paused a moment to catch my breath. As I looked around, I spotted a stone formation that I was pretty sure was what my dad refers to as the balancing rock off to my left. So I decided to cut over and take a closer look. On the way over, I stopped to snap a few photos of this fungal formation that caught my eye:



I also spotted this one on our way back to the trail after I'd done my rock photography:



The woods of Vermont are dotted with huge rocks in seemingly random places, left by the receding glaciers at the end of the last ice age. Which is why you can come across something like this in the middle of the forest:





A closer look at the right side of where the two rocks meet:



Then I walked around the right of the formation to take a look from a different angle:



A closer shot:



I'd already gotten back to the trail when I thought it might be cool to have a point of reference for folks to give them a sense of the rock's size, so Kaylee and I trucked back on up the hill. I got her to sit by the stone, and she listened to my repetition of the "stay" command long enough for me to take this:



Of course I rewarded her assistance with a treat afterward. She seemed to appreciate the gesture.

Finally, a shot of Kaylee from earlier in the day as she laid on one of her favorite spots—the top of Dad's chair: