Keystone State Park: Lake

Around the U.S.

Keystone Lake offers boating, fishing, and swimming, and in the winter, even ice skating. The lake was constructed around 1909 by the Keystone Coal and Coke Company. They used the water in a coal washing facility about two miles away. It wasn't until 1945 that the lake was transferred to the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks, and since then, it has provided recreational benefits to all of its visitors.

Keystone Lake 

Only a few cattails were still standing in this patch near the shore of the lake.

Keystone Cattail

Keystone State Park: Mountain

Around the U.S.

Keystone State Park covers 1,200 acres of southwestern Pennsylvania, including 8 miles of hiking trails and a 78-acre lake. I was surprised by how steep some of the trails are. By the time I reached the top of the first mountain, I was ready to stop and watch the sun setting through the trees.

Keystone Sunset

Near the hiking trail ran this set of power lines. It was amazing how the trees had been cleared to form a pathway that was followed by the power lines up one side of a mountain and down the other.

Wires

Laurelville Mennonite Church Center

Around the U.S.

Southwestern Pennsylvania abounds with hilly terrain, shady forests, and winding streams. On a trip to this area of Pennsylvania, I visited one place that has all of these, along with good hiking trails: Laurelville Mennonite Church Center. There were already leaves budding out on the forest plants, despite the recent sprinkling of snow.

Laurelville

Creation Museum: Gardens

Around the U.S.

Surrounding the lake was a scenic garden featuring plants from all parts of the world. Equally impressive was the large variety of bridges. The one in this picture is a simple wooden arch bridge with low, arched railings.

 Arched Bridge

In contrast, the bridge pictured below uses the more common straight design. However, its interesting use of light posts as part of the railing makes it unusual.

Lighted Bridge

Creation Museum: Lake

Around the U.S.

The landscaping outside the Creation Museum is just as impressive as the interior exhibits. A two-acre lake just outside the museum provides a home for fish and allows visitors who fall off the overhead zip line to land with a splash.

 Reflection 

Another feature of the lake, this picturesque bridge, bears a striking resemblance to a bridge in Monet's famous flower garden.

 Monet's Bridge

This suspension bridge was one of the more popular spots in the garden for wildly jumping up and down. The rocking motion also simulated a storm at sea.

Rocking Bridge

Eden Park

Around Ohio

To finish up my tour of southwestern Ohio, I stopped at Eden Park, located on the northern side of the Ohio River in the Cincinnati area. Although not too obvious in these pictures, the park was located on top of a high ridge along the river, giving an extensive view in both directions.

The River

Across from the park lies the town of Dayton, Kentucky. Here, the buildings reflect the slightly warmer evening rays.

Dayton, KY

Cowan Lake 2

Around Ohio

At 700 acres, Cowan Lake provides plenty of space for boating. I decided to rent a small boat and explore the lake by water. A stiff breeze rippled the surface of the lake, making the ride a bit choppy at times.

Waves

An incessant cloud layer covered the sky for most of the day.

Cloud Cover

Cowan Lake

Around Ohio

Located in the southwestern part of Ohio, Cowan Lake State Park provides boaters and campers alike with beautiful scenery and plentiful fishing. Last fall I spent a few days in a cabin overlooking the lake. Even in gloomy weather, the lake has a beauty all its own.

Cowan Lake

The sun rose directly across the lake from my cabin, reflecting in the rippling water.

Morning Sun

Fall Colors 2

Around Ohio

Near the same lake, I found this park bench planted along the shore. The warm rays of the setting sun on the trees behind it made a nice picture.

Park Bench

 

The setting sun also added some interest to this shot of a cluster of seed pods.

Seed Pods

Fall Colors

Around Ohio

During a recent trip to Prairie Oaks, I came across this scene along the Big Darby Creek. The changing colors of the trees were reflected perfectly in the glassy surface of the creek.

Fall Colors

Not far from the creek, I found these dry, seed-bearing plants growing at the edge of one of the quarry lakes.

Dry Weeds

Niagara Falls Light Show

Around the U.S.
 

Every evening, a set of brilliant, multi-colored lights is shone on the falls from the Canadian shore, illuminating the falls in rainbow colors. I stayed to watch the light show and captured a few images of the falls. The picture below shows the American Falls.

American Falls

 

The moon rose almost directly behind the American Falls just before the light show started.

Moon Over Falls

 

Downstream from the falls, Rainbow Bridge was visible in the twilight. The lower beams of the bridge form a parabolic arch.

Rainbow Bridge

Canadian Side

Around the U.S.

The Canadian side of Niagara Falls offers different, and sometimes better, views of the falls, especially Horseshoe Falls. Although less than three times as wide as the American Falls, Horseshoe Falls carries nine times as much water, about 720,000 gallons per second. The greenish tint is a result of the salts and finely ground rock dissolved in the water.

This picture shows the Horseshoe Falls with the Maid of the Mist. An enormous cloud of mist seems to be perpetually rising from the base of the falls, thinning out as the wind carries it away.

Horseshoe Falls

Here's a closer view of the brink of Horseshoe Falls. The falls drop about 173 feet to the water below.

Brink of the Falls

Unlike the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls, pictured below, cascade over a series of large boulders at their base. Although these falls are hard to see at times through the mist, I managed to capture this shot when the air was clear.

American Falls

This last photograph shows a bed of pink flowers along a walkway near the falls. I believe they are geraniums.

Pink Geraniums

Niagara Falls

Around the U.S.
 

Of the few places in the world that can really take your breath away, Niagara Falls has to be one of the better ones. It'd be hard to imagine something with that much water that isn't just outright impressive. I was recently privileged with a trip to Niagara Falls, and made photography a priority during my stay in the area. This next series of photographs, featuring the falls, will be my first set from outside Ohio.

The best place to capture a view of the American Falls, the closer falls in this picture, and the Canadian Falls to the southwest is from the observation tower a few hundred yards downstream.

 Niagara Falls

 

The boat below, the Maid of the Mist, plies the misty waters at the base of the falls, giving tourists a somewhat soaking experience of the power of this amount of water.

 Misty Waters

 

A boardwalk starting from the south end of the American Falls takes visitor about halfway to the top of the waterfall. The dense clouds of mist billowing across the boardwalk create many beautiful rainbows, and I captured one of them below in front of the Niagara River.

Up the Boardwalk

 

The observation tower also provided a view of this structure, the Rainbow Bridge, which sits just downstream from the falls. It is one of the few access points between Canada and the U.S. in the area.

Rainbow Bridge

 

Clear Creek Metro Park 2

Around Ohio

My hike through Clear Creek Metro Park also brought me past this ancient barn out in the middle of the woods. I don't know for sure why it was there, but it may have at one time belonged to the Allen F. Beck or Emily Benua families, who donated much of the land the park now occupies. 

Ancient Barn
 

This rock formation is a natural feature of the park. Known as "Leaning Lena," the mass of stone seems to teeter precariously along the edge of the road. Although I found it interesting to photograph, I wouldn't want to find myself under this rock if it ever came crashing down!

Leaning Lena

Clear Creek Metro Park

Around Ohio

 

Clear Creek Metro Park is one of the most secluded parks in the Columbus Metro Parks system. With 12 miles of trails stretching over more than 5,000 acres, Clear Creek is also among the largest of the Metro parks.

I recently visited the park and hiked several miles along the rugged trails, most of which wind through dense forests and around steep cliffs and deep ravines. This photo shows one view of the forest with the bright sunshine slightly visible in the background.

Forest

 

Clear Creek Metro Park also has its share of wildflowers. I spotted these purple flowers along one of the trails near the park's namesake waterway, Clear Creek.

Wildflowers

Lake Hope State Park

Around Ohio
 

Besides rock formations, the Hocking Hills area includes a lovely man-made reservoir known as Lake Hope. The 2,983-acre park which contains it is a rugged, heavily forested region traversed by steep gorges and narrow ridges, making it beautiful for an early morning hike. But I found the lake itself most appealing for photography. This picture features pink flowers I found growing along the shoreline.

Lake Hope

I even found a swallowtail butterfly sitting on one of the plants.

Swallowtail

Cantwell Cliffs

Around Ohio
 

The last set of rock formations in the Hocking Hills area is known as Cantwell Cliffs. It is located farthest north, 17 miles from Old Man's Cave. But it is one of the most picturesque areas in Hocking County. Large slump blocks which fell away from the main cliffs have created many narrow passageways which trails wind through today.

Narrow Passage

 

This view looks straight up from between two huge rock masses.

Crevice

 

The uneven ground requires stone steps in some places. Rock cliffs form vertical walls on either side of these stairs.

Rock Walls

Cedar Falls 2

Around Ohio

After capturing a number of pictures of the falls, I had to start the inevitable hike back to the car. The top of the falls is accessible by nearly 100 stone steps which swing out around the pool at the base of the falls, rising along the edge of the cliff to the top. They are known as Democracy Steps, and were specially designed by artist, architect, and mathematician Akio Huzume to provide a comfortable pace and rhythm to hikers by reflecting mathematical principles of the Fibonacci sequence and one-dimensional Penrose lattice. Personally, I thought they just seemed like . . . another set of steps.

 

At one point I passed by this enormous rock wall. It seemed to reach well above the treetops.

Rock Wall

Farther along, the trail wound between these two huge rock towers.

A Treacherous Trail

Back at the car this sign warned of the dangerous area I had just hiked through.

Warning Sign

Rock House 2

Around Ohio

Here are a few more pictures from Rock House. It is the only actual cave in the Hocking Hills area. It sits about halfway up a 150-foot-high cliff of Blackhand sandstone. The main corridor is about 200 feet long and 20 to 30 feet wide, with an average ceiling height of 25 feet.
 

This view shows one of the openings at the front of the cave and the cliff above it.

Cliff and Trees

Below you can see one of the "windows" from the inside of the cave.

Cave "Window"

This last picture looks up at the cliff on one side of the cave. Only moss and small ferns were able to hang on to the rocky side of the precipice.

Mossy Cliff

Rock House

Around Ohio

Since I'm done posting pictures from Newport Aquarium, I'll start back where I left off with photos from Hocking Hills. This next rock formation is known as Rock House. It's a long recess about halfway up a rock cliff lined with massive rock pillars along the front. It looked as if it would have made a perfect house for Native Americans hundreds of years ago.

This first picture looks out between two of the rock pillars at the forest outside. The cave was almost on the same level as the tops of the trees in the valley below.

Between Pillars

 

The view below is looking down the cave recess, with the rock pillars along the left opening out onto the cliff face.

Rock House

 

This picture shows part of the cliff on one side of Rock House. There were stone steps carved into the side of the cliff that gave access to it.

Cliff