On our last visit to Roundrock, when L and I had wandered for two hours in the forest, not realizing just how far we had hiked, we came across this round rock early in the journey:

I thought it was photo worthy. When I bent down to examine the opening, I saw a small spider hiding within. Otherwise I might have tried digging out the mud to see just how deep the hole went. Instead I left the spider and its hiding place intact.

About one third of the round rocks we find have some sort of hole in them. Most are not as pronounced as this one. Many have just small impressions, like navels on oranges, which is appropriate since many of the rocks are about orange size. I’m not sure if the navels are a consequence of their formation or if they are merely a coincidence. In addition to the naveled round rocks, we have found many that are deeply pitted, looking much like the surface of the moon. But most that we’ve stumbled across are unblemished and consistent in texture.

(You will also notice my enemy in the lower left quadrant of the photo. That’s sericea lespedeza, though I’m certain this particular plant is no longer in a growing state.)

As I said when I originally posted about that hike, we had traveled much farther than we realized, and the hike back to camp got to be a bit less of a lark. As we pushed mostly easterly through the dense trees and scrub, we then came across this round rock:

Had it not been so hot, and had I not been so thirsty, and had I not been so longing to fall into the comfy chair under the shady tarp, I might have laughed. The fact that we had hiked in a big circle meant that we were nearly back to where we wanted to be. But the fact that we had hiked in a big circle when we were hot and tired and lacerated by the low and implacable branches of the black jack oak trees in our path made me feel the gods were laughing at me.

But obviously we lived to tell the tale.

So here I offer an image of one of the finer of our round rocks:

Some have suggested that we sell the rocks on eBay, but when I look at a beauty like this one, I realize that, like Rexroth’s Daughter commented, I could never part with them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 at 1:31 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.