Lotus at Harris Lake

Saturday was a little cooler than the rest of the week, so we took Alex and headed down to Harris Lake County Park for a hike.  It was mostly overcast, but no rain and while the temperature was a little lower than it's been, it was still quite humid.  After parking, we started hiking the Peninsula Trail in the clockwise direction.  Several people were fishing and a few boats cruised by.  The water level was low but the lake was still very scenic.

About half-way through the loop, the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant came into view.  I went out to the lake at one spot for pictures of the power plant.

A couple were taking pregnancy photos here - I thought a nuclear power plant was a rather unusual backdrop.  Towards the end of the loop, we started to see a lot of really American lotus in the lake and they were flowering.

Even in low water, it was too swampy to really get out and see them, but the flowers were beautiful.

The seed pods were really cool as well.

Finishing up the loop, it was still early so we got in one more short hike.

It was about 30 minutes to White Pines Nature Preserve, a Triangle Land Conservancy property.  We started off on White Pines Trail and took River Trail down to the Rocky River.  Here we took the short Schoolkids Loop out to the old cable bridge that once spanned the river.  With low water, the Rocky River was really living up to its name.

Back to River Trail, we followed the river downstream to the confluence with Deep River.

The sun finally poked out from behind the clouds, but this just made it hotter.  So we took River Trail to Gilbert Yager Trail and followed this back to the parking area to complete out hike.