On a beautiful, blustery, fall day I made my first visit to the Salmon Hole to record some of the vegetation and make some general observations about the area. On the short walk down the hill to the river bank, there were many large white oaks, northern red oaks, and Norway maples. Closer to the Winooski, there were far more large rocks, likely preventing larger trees from growing, however, there were many small American beeches, basswood, and green ashes. Many of these trees still had green leaves. Other than trees, woody bushes like barberry and northern bush honeysuckle, which was a bright red, were abundant.
I didn’t spot very many animals other than a raptor that was circling above. These birds of prey start their southbound migration in early fall, so they are often spotted soaring in the sky during this time of the year.
Something else that stuck out to me during my first visit was the number of people out fishing in the river. I counted 6 people fishing, which surprised me considering it was the middle of a Thursday afternoon.
