Casera Casavento hike

No bike ride today, but I continued on foot my interrupted bike ride in March to the end of pavement above Val Margons:  http://dolomiti-friulane.blogspot.it/2012/03/val-margons.html   Today I brought along our dogs Honey and Teddi and began the hike just past Lesis (above Claut).  We ascended the steep tornanti in full forested shade; the cool morning air kept us from over-heating.   The gravel road after the tornanti isn't bad at all- should be fine on a bici di corsa, unless it has fancy wheels or tires which might be damaged by †he rocks.  You soon reach Pian de Cea then cross a wide gravel wash on a stone roadway.  You re-enter the forest and continue to gently climb until reaching the alpine meadows surrounding Casera Casavento.  Beautiful place, with tall cliffs and dense forest on 3 sides.  A few minutes later you arrive at the site of a fossilized dinosaur footprint in a lovely mountain stream below a waterfall.  Quite a wonderful location.  After exploring a bit we headed down.  Much easier in this direction.  We passed very few people along the way.  I imagine on Sundays in the summer it's crowded, but today practically deserted.  In summer they charge you to park, the road is only one lane wide so someone must backup if 2 cars meet, etc.  Best to go off-season or weekdays.  

Narrow headwaters of Torrente Cellina from Pont de la Sala

Looking upstream toward la sorgente del Cellina

Peaks to the north beyond Grave da Giere

Casera Casavento's lovely setting

Across the alpine meadows of Casera Casavento looking west

The creature who left his footprint here

A grafical explanation of how it all happened

Storied paleontologists Honey and Teddi examine the fossil for clues

Tried to use shadow and exposure to make this footprint visible.
It's about as long as my foot, but wider.

Ciol de Ciasavento waterfall above the fossil site

From Lesis to Casera Casavento