Birthday Day

Last tuesday my friend Cindie and I went up to Union Creek to celebrate our two birthdays...Mine is in June, hers in November...we have been talking about this since June, and so we finally did it. Our original plan was to just go up and have pie, but since Butte Creek Mill was so close to our turn off to go to the Upper Rogue, we started there. Here is the url to Butte Creek Mill if you want to read more about it! http://www.buttecreekmill.com/

A stone engraved with the year that Butte Creek Mill was built.

The entrance to the mill was all decorated with fall colors,

lots of pumpkins and corn stalks everywhere - it was very festive looking.

This display was to the left when you walked in the front entrance, the thing that interested me was the poster on the wall with the Cowgirl on it for Golden West Coffee.

What a beautiful advertisement!

This stairway was closed to the general public but it goes down to the bottom floor of the mill...

But there was another stairway down and once at the bottom we could walk around to an area where you could see the creek rushing under the mill through the slats on the floor. This open window was pointing out to the river below, that the creek poured in to! It was very beautiful and I was unable to catch the morning light with my camera.

Can you say CHEEEEEESEBURGER and fries please????

Pie mmmm....it's marionberry with loads of whipped cream...Thanks to Barbara up at Beckie's Restaurant in Union Creek for quick service and a smiling face!

We finally got up to the Gorge above Union Creek and walked along the river. All the Vine Maple was starting to turn color and it was a beautiful fall day!

The foot bridge going out over the Rogue River at the Natural Bridge hike.

The river narrows as it gets ready to shoot through the underground lava tubes at the Natural Bridge...
Up river a bit it widens out and is quite slow and not so deep so you can see the bottom of the river in places.

Vine Maple (Acer circinatum) leaves already fallen off and wasting away into the ground, but look at the beautiful colors they are still showing!!!!

When I saw this tree, I said....This is OLD GROWTH FIR!!!! I didn't know we still had trees this size in Oregon. I was so excited, I asked Cindie to shoot this picture of me standing next to it!

This is a picture I took standing next to the tree looking UP!!!!! Isn't that wild?

These are beautiful mushrooms!!!!

Emetic Russula (Dangerous, Toxic, Poisonous)

Standing inside of a hollowed out Fir Tree

This is a big beautiful snag next to the river.

I love seeing these as I know they will provide awesome bird habitat!!!!!