The Sugar Bowl

Rock inscriptions, critters and plants galore...

The photo above is of the geologic formation at Cedar Bluffs known as the Sugar Bowl. I’m not sure why it has that name. In the photo, you can see me and Diego Garcia checking it out in 2020 during the height of Covid. Diego’s Dad Dave took the photo. I remember this walk very well. It was therapeutic, for me anyway. We had been in relative isolation for a while, and it was nice to walk in nature with friends. It makes me teary-eyed now just thinking about it…it was lovely.

I was introduced to the Sugar Bowl years ago by Professor Pete Eyheralde. Pete’s a Professor of Biology at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, and in the past, he worked for Mahaska County Conservation. Pete is a walking, talking, encyclopedia about the natural world. Pete can’t move more than a step or two before I want to start taking notes on what he has to share. When I grow up I want to be like Pete.

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Pete tells me that J. L. Foster was the Postmaster from the downstream town of Ferry, Iowa and that he and his brother made inscriptions on the rock. Other inscriptions are now illegible. For some reason, someone obscured the “18” before “79” in this inscription by Foster.

Ferry, Iowa no longer exists, but Pete believes it was downriver, near Rochester, an old stagecoach and steamboat stop on the Des Moines River. Click on the link and you will find a fascinating history.

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I went to the Sugar Bowl on Saturday, and this is a photo I took.

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Along the creek below the Sugar Bowl, I see the above plants I don’t see in other places. What I don’t see is infinite.

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Note the Jewelweed in the foreground above.

That’s all I have to say about the Sugar Bowl. For now.

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We saw two deer.

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This anthill above was almost three feet wide and a foot high. You can see Violet the Dog’s footprints in it. I hope it wasn’t too disruptive for the ants.

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Love the sunrise…

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Hello in there! Who are you? And why did you build that little house? When people started building houses millennia ago, did we learn from you?

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On the drive home the other day, I stopped to try to get a video of young pheasants who cross the road at the same place almost daily. Much to my surprise, two fawns started frolicking in the pasture.

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Hello down there, you fossorial creature! Are you a mole or a pocket gopher? Or someone else?

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Finally, check out these incredible green beetles on this thistle going about their business!

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If you are a subscriber and would like to share a photo of something beautiful or wondrous about our world near you, please email me at rdwleonard@gmail.com, and I’ll share it. Thanks!

If you want to join me on my walk, email me at rdwleonard@gmail.com. I would love to have your company. Just be prepared to get up early!

If you enjoy Cedar Creek Nature Notes, I encourage you to subscribe to my friend Larry Stone’s “Listening to the Land.” It’s fantastic. Larry has forgotten more than I will ever know about our outdoor world.

Also, please share my posts, and Larry’s. The more we all know and appreciate our natural world the better off we will all be.

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