A Last Look at the Damsels and Dragons of Whipple

The Labor Day holiday, which was last weekend, is generally considered the symbolic end of summer in the U.S. Traditionally, the state parks close their swimming areas on or around the Labor Day holiday. This year, only a handful are keeping their beaches open for another week or two.

Whipple Dam is, as I mentioned last weekend, my favorite local swimming hole. The beach closes for the season this coming Monday morning. With rain expected for Saturday, we took Friday off and turned it into a swimming day. We started out with a hearty, hot lunch at Couch's restaurant in McAlevy's Fort. From there, we went for what would be our last Whipple Dam swim of the year.

Whipple is one of the best places I know of for damselflies and dragonflies. In the height of summer, the places is simply buzzing with them. You'd expect the place might need its own air traffic control tower, there are that many. Before and after my swim (which was lovely and cool and comfy, thanks for asking), I went in search of dragons and damsels.

The biggest of the fancy bugs are mostly gone from the lake now. But the small and mid-size bugs are still going strong. In fact, love was in the air. (So was competition; bugs chased bugs, everywhere.) They all seemed to be trying to enjoy just one last summer romance before the chill of fall sets in.

In celebration of the fancy bugs of Whipple, I am including two photos in this posting. The main photo shows two red dragons clutching each other in a close embrace. The extra photo area shows a damsel, using a green leaf as a sun umbrella; it almost seems to be . . . grinning.

I wanted the song to accompany these images of damsels and dragons to be a tune about a damsel or a dragon; perhaps both. So here is a damsel singing about a dragon: Stevie Nicks, with Battle of the Dragon.