At the other end of the road and at a lower elevation, a stream tumbled out of the hills and crossed under the road. I parked here to try my luck with some streamside amphibians. First up were some Blue Ridge Twolined Salamanders, Eurycea wilderae, under the rocks along the water's edge. I also found a few Northern Duskies (Desmognathus fuscus fuscus) in the same type of situation. Under a rock atop an old campfire was a small Carolina Dusky, curled up on a layer of embers. It seemed like an odd place to find a salamander, but given the moisture content of the ground and the air, maybe not so odd. Salamanders and fire...also in the embers was an odd little desmognathid, marked sort of like a Redback on the dorsum. I pegged this one as Desmognathus orestes, the Blue Ridge Dusky Salamander, but in all probability I was too far north for this to be an orestes. Probably just a Carolina Mountain Dusky. I was not as alert as I should have been, and the little sally wriggled into a hole while I was taking its picture. I thought "oh, I'll turn up another one or two," but that proved not to be the case.

Poking around near a small waterfall, I walked up something large and dark, and managed to get hands on it before it could wriggle away to safety. It was a Blackbellied Salamander, Desmognathus quadramaculatus, and a good-sized one. These creatures are hard catches - they are very wet, and very fast, and just when you think you have them safe in hand they wiggle away. I learned that once you got them under a cover plate, they calmed down, and would often stay very still while getting their picture taken. Blackbellies are the largest of the desmognathids; they can reach six inches in length, and have thick, strong bodies. The tail on this species is extremely keeled and compressed along its whole length. I had only seen one once before, so it was great to get a good look at this one.

I saw several more Blackbellies and Duskies along the stream, and nearby I found another Graycheek. This had turned out to be a good spot, but it was time to move on again; it looked like the rains were done for good, and I wanted to check out a few more places along this road.

One of the hairpin turns featured a nice rock cut, but I could find nothing along the face aside from some interesting snails. Above the cut was a rock-studded hillside, so I found a place to climb up and have a look. The elevation here was high enough that the trees, mostly hemlock, were thinning out a bit, and rhododendrons were absent. There were plenty of liftable rocks and fallen logs up here, and before too long I found several more Yonahlossees under rocks. Finding one was great, but finding more was better! I also turned up several more P. welleri on the same hillside. These two gorgeous creatures, one big, one small - do they peacefully coexist up here, sharing the same habitat but not really getting in each other's way?  The Yonahs are big enough to eat Weller's, so perhaps not.

I was losing the light by the time I finished traversing the hill. Tonight was a big travel night, so it was time for me to knock off and move on. I headed into the nearest town and found the laundromat - I had a pile of sodden, muddy clothing to wash and dry. While my clothes were tumbling in the dryer I ate at the Mexican place nearby, and toasted the day's success with dinner and cerveza frias...then I hit the road, heading south towards Gatlinburg, Dollywood, and the Great Smoky Mountains.

It started to rain again...