Kayaking Silver Jack Lake

Mark has been second guessing our decision concerning the vehicle we chose to tow behind the motorhome.  We opted for a Honda CRV because it is comfortable to drive and gets great gas mileage.  But when we are spending so much time in the mountains, he has wished for one of those gas-guzzling bumpy-riding 4-wheel-drive jeeps.  But we have found some scenic roads that the CRV can handle.  So we headed onto CR 8 towards Owl Creek Pass.  The road took us directly towards Chimney Rock (on the far left) and Court House Mountain (on the far right).

As we drove, the two peaks got clearer and closer.

Those two peaks were behind us when we hit the high point of the drive at Owl Creek Pass.  It was nice and cool on an August afternoon over 10,000 feet in elevation.

The wildflowers are still going strong at this altitude, and the purple daisies were in full bloom.

So we had some beautiful distractions on the drive, but our real destination of the day was Silver Jack Lake.  Because it is 20 miles from the nearest paved road, it is a hidden gem in a beautiful setting.

We launched the kayak, thinking we might only paddle for an hour or so.  But we were on the lake for 3 hours, enthralled with this beautifully unspoiled place with water so clear we could see the bottom.

While here, Denisa practiced her "walking on water" skills.  As you can see, she is both far from the water's edge and far from the boat.

Or maybe she was just standing on a random boulder that happened to be just barely under the water.  The water was quite deep, so this was a huge rock in the middle of the lake.

We were also entertained by a beaver swimming in the lake.  We spotted his nose gliding at the top of the water.  It was impossible to get a good picture of that nose and the wave that followed behind him.  (We know it was impossible because we took about a hundred pictures trying to get a good one.)  We watched him swim zig-zag patterns around the lake for thirty minutes.  We are easily entertained now that we are retired!  If we got too close, or if he decided to change directions, he would slap his tail on the water and dive underneath.  Again, we could never catch the slap, but we could always see the big splash.  Then it was a game to see if we could spot where he re-surfaced on the water.

We also spotted a mother duck and her 9 ducklings making their way across the lake.  You can barely see their profiles in the water, with the majestic background of mountains behind the lake.

It was a peaceful float in a beautiful area on a day filled with sunshine.  No motorized boats are allowed on the lake, and we were the only kayak on the water most of the afternoon.  Before we left, the lake was completely still,  mirroring the mountains and clouds above it.  We wandered into every nook of Silver Jack Lake--another of God's wonders.