Fire Tower Vistas, Beaver Dams & Bucky Too...All In A Day At Bays Mountain Park

It was supposed to be a nice day Monday and I just needed a mental health day on the trail, so I spent it at Bays Mountain Park.

I decided to hike up to the Bays Mountain Fire Tower. The reason I wanted a tough uphill and it is my favorite spot in the park because of the views. I started up the Lakeshore Trail. I discovered spots on the trail were water was covering the trail. While the recent heavy rains might have been the cause it was actually something else...Beavers. While I didn't see one I did see plenty of their handy work and two Beaver dams.

The 60-foot fire tower is always a highlight. The views today were outstanding. I took part of the loop I did three years ago on the Bays Mountain Road past the Communication Towers.

Instead of continuing on the road I decided to take a trail I hadn't back to the Nature Center, the Azalea Trail. Besides a lot of water on the trail, I witnessed the biggest squirrel I have ever seen. It was so big I didn't think it was a squirrel until I saw his tail (it was a Fox Squirrel).

Speaking of animals, hiking wasn't all I did I visited the animal enclosed. There was a Barred Owl named Shakespeare and Barn Owl who wasn't happy. The Wolves were lively (a lot of howling) but my favorite at Bays Mountain is a deer. I thought I had written about but I guess I haven't. I call him Bucky and he likes to follow me around the White-Tailed Deer encloser. But now he has a decent rack and likes to scrape the fence and knock around some rocks. Bucky is cool! I finished the day with a trip across the dam.