Rock & Sand Club Loop: Tadpoles

Call them tadpoles or poliwogs, Mr. And Mrs. Frog were a busy couple of croakers, spawning one heck of a brood. They had to wait a long time for flood waters to fill this depressed portion of road on the Rock & Sand Club Loop at just the right time of year, the time when they are at their friskiest. Sure it will fill during winter rains, but this time of year it is normally dusty and dry and mister and missus frog are hunkered down somewhere - waiting. 

Around its entire circumference, the shoreline of this little seasonal pond is brimming with young 'uns, each in its own race against time. I suspect the waters of this pond will not be refreshed any time soon, and the thirteen to sixteen weeks they require to transform does not leave a lot of wiggle room. Since water, at this point of the river is dependent upon a release from the reservoirs up canyon, and flowing freely past the various siphon points in the channel above the dam, I think most will become crow bait, pushed out of their rapidly shrinking, temporary home. The crows know it, probably why there were so many nearby.

The river was flowing two weeks ago, but not now. Now it is just a placid pool, a mirror reflecting the sky, a rocky bed, and cut banks on either side. The crossing seemed a little loose and shifty for the Ibis, but the sight of water there was certainly a pretty one, a glimpse of how things might once have been.

Considering the crowds of people at the nearby recreation area, the back areas are fortunately quiet and abandoned, enough so that you could sit down in the middle of the trail. If you wanted to.