Category Archives: National Parks

The Beauty of Assateague, other than the ponies

05 Friday Apr 2019

Posted by in Eastern Shore, Hiking, National Parks

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Off to Assateague we go. First the National Park side on the bay and then the State Park. Glad we got passes when we did.

Boardwalk to the bay side. 

Molly always enjoys the beach.

Except when she heads onto the grasses. The seaweed wasn’t bad but behind where Kathy is sitting is all sand-burs. Played hell getting them out of her paws.

Crushed shells.

The beauty of drift wood.

The shoreline at one time was full of cacti. It is slowly eroding away.

Like pulling mussels from a shell…

A petrified snapping turtle eating a thorn stem…well, that’s what it looks like to me!

We will always miss our little house at #Cromwellvalleypark, but we now have the Naturalist Shack!

Egret off in the distance. A couple seagulls landed on his/her little island. Hope they don’t try snatching any eggs!

No prompting from us – I think it helped soothe her sore feet.

Oh jeez Molly!! Glad we brought a lot of poop bags!!

Love retirement!!

Ocean side of the parks, before the crowds.

Ocean City in the far off distance.

Another day doing what we love. Did see some ponies but we enjoy ALL that nature and life has to offer!!

Thanks God.

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Chincoteague

15 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by in Hiking, National Parks, nature

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We haven’t hiked here since May 2017. It is nice living close by. Less than an hour away. Kathy and I needed a nice little road trip. Selling homes, moving, moving again and retiring is a lot of work!

It was chilly and very windy on both the ocean and bay sides of the island. One large sand dune blocks the ocean from the parking lot, for the whole length of the lot. Kathy and Molly climbing over the dunes.

Glad I didn’t take my good camera – I’ve ruined two of them over the years from sand getting into them. The sand was stinging our faces. Looking up the beach.

After getting sandblasted on the ocean beach, we headed to bay side – Tom’s cove.

Windy still but nice. The snow geese were hanging out.

Including I believe, the Adult Blue Morph.

Seagulls were plentiful and a delight to watch (Always better watching them on the beach than at Thrasher’s!) 

This guy, below, kept picking this object up, dropping it to crack it open and then taking it to the pool to wash it off. He discovered that it wasn’t edible.

Heading away from the ocean and driving to the mainland we saw this guy.

And this guy off in the distance, standing away from the rest of the herd.

Seeing the lighthouse off in the distance we headed that way.

Belongs to the Coast Guard. Last time we were here, there were way too many people to get a half way decent shot.

Historic info.

Nice day for a much needed hike. The park police did stop us to inform us that it is illegal to bring a pet onto a National Wildlife Refuge. Never would have guessed that Molly doesn’t count as wildlife!

Terrapin Park

14 Wednesday Mar 2018

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The last couple of times we visited this park, last summer, we were unable to hike the trails – too many people and too many cars in the parking lot. It was packed. I like that people and families go to the parks to enjoy themselves, I just don’t like it when large groups of people set up camp and stay all day – not allowing others to enjoy the park. It was so bad last summer, that the park service had to install Spot-o-Pots along the beach path. Here is our path:

It was a short hike. We just wanted to see and enjoy the Bay.

Along the Cross Island Trail, we stopped long enough to enjoy some of the beauty that is all around us.

Hitting the beach, our first view is of a ship going under the Bay Bridge. I don’t know how many times we travelled over that bridge and saw anywhere from 4 to 12 ships just parked on the other side. This is the first time we saw one actually heading to points north.

We always did want a home on the Eastern Shore!

The recent storms that we had, left a lot of debris up on the dunes. And some along the beach.

I have my doubts that this was washed up on shore, along with a cantaloupe a few yards away. 

Constantly shifting, in and out of the pond.

Along with all the debris and driftwood, were some casualties from the storms – like this poor little fellow.

And this guy.

And another.

The breakwater walls seem to have broken.

Gnarly.

Waiting for its tenants. 

A few areas have eroded away along the beach. Nature just does her thing…

Ice

07 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in National Parks, nature, Photography

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Trip this weekend to Salisbury. Nice ice.

Crossed the Bay Bridge heading east and Kathy says that we should stop on the shore and take a photo of the bridge. Go to Hemingway’s parking lot, I get out and say “Aren’t you coming?” No, too cold! And it was very cold with the breeze coming off of the icy bay.

Looking towards the container ships.

Most roads were pretty clear. A couple drifts on 50 between Easton and Cambridge. Then we made it. The Chokey or the woodshed?

The footbridge over the frozen pond.

A favorite meditation bench.

Molly only lasted out here, in her new coat, for just a couple minutes.

Unknown footprints into the pond.

On the way home we drove towards Blackwater Refuge. I say drove towards because we got kind of lost. We did end up at a part of the refuge we had never been to. The roads here were pretty clear also.

 

Black water – black sand…

We saw a few eagles and a couple herons.

And instead of turning towards the park, where the visitor center is, we ended up at Hearns Cove and Wingate Creek.

Boats frozen in place.

Dock in B/W

Nice little post office and name.

 

Vacations in B/W

14 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by in National Parks, Photography

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I could not imagine going on vacation and seeing everything in black and white, although I do sometimes convert my photographs to b/w. On occasion, while sorting and documenting the museum archives I come across photographs that are in unmarked files, no explanation as to why they are there. The only thing I can figure is that they were someone’s personal photos and left within objects donated to the museum or gathered up and packed away by mistake before they were archived.

I found the below photographs with their negatives in an old lantern slide envelope. They are 2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″ prints. There are no dates but they have a short description on the reverse side.

Grand canyon of the Yellowstone from Inspiration Point, Yellowstone Park (Note falls in distance)

Old Faithful (car gives an idea to the date of this photograph – early 1900s?)

Angel Terrace, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Park. Back then people needed to be told to stay off the natural wonders, so as not to ruin them for others to enjoy.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone from Inspiration Point. Two of the photos I found had a glare to them, like they were taken through the windshield of a car?

View of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone.

At foot of Uncle Tom’s Trail. Lower Falls of Yellowstone. Enlarging this photo doesn’t do it justice. Although I scanned it at 1200, it looks fuzzy. The actual photo is crisper. I never was one to like the effects some photographers do to moving water, making it all fuzzy looking. I like seeing what is being seen and not special effects.

Minerva Terrace. Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Park.