I captured this image near the top of Little Stony Man in Shenandoah National Park. It was a cool and wet day. The weather nearly caused me to cancel my plans but I’m glad I didn’t.
Continue reading “Hiking In The Rain”Hiking In The Rain
Mysterious Forest
It’s notoriously hard to get a good weather forecast for Shenandoah National Park. The park is over 100 miles long and the closest cities and towns are at least 1,000′ lower than the ridge line.
I checked the weather before leaving home. The forecast for a nearby town was for partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the upper 70’s. There was a slight chance of rain so I grabbed my rain jacket on the way out the door.
As I reached the foothills of the mountains it began to rain. “Not to worry,” I thought. I had my rain gear and the trailhead is 20 miles north of the entrance station. The weather there could be completely different.
I entered the park in a steady rain with temperatures 15 degrees lower than I expected. The drive to the trailhead was mostly inside clouds intent on shedding their moisture as they crossed the Appalachian Mountains.
When I arrived at the trailhead the rain was slow but steady. Having already driven over two hours to hike this trail, I decided to don my rain gear and make the best of it. As they say “there’s no bad weather, only bad gear.”
About 15 minutes into my hike the clouds still enshrouded the mountains but the rain had stopped. The vistas I came to see were clouded in but it was still a good day and left me with a reason to come back another time.
There weren’t many dramatic views that day but the weather gave the mountains a peaceful and mysterious quality.
Tolkien Forest
While hiking on a foggy and rainy day in the mountains I started to feel like I walked into a Tolkien novel.
Mountain Stream, Dark Hollow Falls
The fixed, hard stone provides an ideal path for water to rush down the mountain. The stone may seem immobile and rigid but in time it will be defeated by the steady pounding of the water and the quiet, patience of the moss. For now they share this space and offer a beautiful, peaceful spot to sit and rest.
Ferns, I
This post was inspired by Brenda of A Meditative Journey with Saldage. When I saw these ferns they reminded me of the type of image she frequently posts. That being said, I’m sure she would have done a far better job with them than I did.
Canada Violet
This Canada Violet was growing along a hiking trail in Shenandoah National Park when I was there last May.
Mountain Pool, Dark Hollow Falls
I love these mountain pools in Shenandoah National Park. This one is downstream from Dark Hollow Falls but you can find scenes like this throughout the park.
Click on the image to see a larger version of the photograph.
Daisy Fleabane
This daisy fleabane was blooming along a hiking trail in Shenandoah National Park at the end of May.
Knowing “bane” loosely means something that is hated by or makes something’s existence more difficult, I thought fleabane was an interesting name for a wildflower so I looked it up. Folklore has it these plants can be dried and used to keep fleas away. That explains the name.
Dark Hollow Falls, 50mm Challenge
When my friend and I reached the bottom of Dark Hollow Falls I decide to challenge myself a little. I switched to a 50mm prime lense, rather than the two zoom lenses I had been using all morning. My challenge was to only shoot with the prime lense for the rest of our hike.
When we arrived at this spot I immediately found myself frustrated because I couldn’t frame the entire waterfall with a 50mm lense. It was simply too big and we couldn’t get very far away from it. Knowing my wide angle zoom would easily frame the scene only made the whole situation more annoying. Sticking to my self imposed challenge I started looking for different perspectives and ended up with this. I am absolutely certain I would not have taken this photo if I was using the lense I normally shoot with.
Sometimes forcing yourself to do things differently can lead to different ways of seeing things.
Blackberry Blossoms
The bees in Shenandoah National Park were busy pollinating blackberry blossoms growing along the Dark Hollow Falls trail when I was last there.