A trip to Banias Falls

Today, it was cooler than some of the days this past week, so we decided to take a trip to Banias Falls in the Banias National Park. We left right after breakfast so that we would be out there before the hottest time of the day.

As we were going out the front door, some of the kittens were hanging around, in including Mr. B, who is one of the most curious. He sat down in a very cat-like fashion and watched me intently. By using my camera's maximum digital zoom, I was able to get several great pictures of this photogenic kitten. Here's one of the best:

Here's a view from near the entrance to this part of the park. In the foreground, you can see the viewpoint on the opposite side of the river. The canyon that the river runs in is between us and the viewpoint, but about all you can see of it is the green tops of the trees that grow down there. In the distance, just to the right of the viewpoint, is Nimrod's Fortress, a castle built to defend against the Crusaders. To the left of that, we see the end of the range of mountains leading up to Har Khermon (Mt. Hermon), the highest mountain in Israel.

Here's a zoomed view of the viewpoint area, where you can see some people looking down at the Banias Falls itself:

After hiking down into the canyon, crossing the Banias River (on 3 bridges!), and hiking back up the other side, I got this view of the Banias Falls, looking down from the viewpoint:

Here's a view of a small cascade in the Banias River a little ways downstream from the Falls:

In most places around northern Israel, these thistles have long since finished blooming, but I saw several on the hike today:

I also saw of few of these unusual and beautiful flowers:

This is probably the most surprising thing that we saw today. As we were hiking back up the side of the canyon to return to the car, I happened to look high up on the cliff above us. And this is what I saw: a beehive! Thank goodness again for the zoom capabilities of my camera!