The Beauty Around Us

On the morning of Thursday, March 24, we returned to Trough Creek State Park.  Our first stop was at the Balanced Rock Trail.  We walked across the suspension bridge, as we did the prior day. 

The prior day I photographed Bob, as he walked on the suspension bridge.

We continued on the trail to Rainbow Falls. 

While Bob was hiking, I was taking pictures of Rainbow Falls.

I had to, of course, take a selfie of me and the waterfall.

There is a short, a very short, clip in the above-displayed video where it looks like Bob lost his balance, while hiking down from the Balanced Rock. He was just messing with me 🙂

Bob said the climb to the Balanced Rock was steep; the trail was slippery in places.  He ended turning the wrong way and ended up on a trail that was even worse than the trail to the Balanced Rock.  At one place on that trail, he had to climb underneath a fallen log. Bob said I decided correctly to stay at Rainbow Falls.  I enjoyed staying at the falls.  It was peaceful there, with the only sound being the falling of water.  On our way back to the car, as we crossed the suspension bridge, three men crossed too.  Boy! Did that bridge sway and bounce!  

From the Balanced Rock Trail we drove to the Ice Mine. 

According to showcases.com this Ice Mine “is an artificial adit, probably a prospect hole for early iron miners. The ice is formed by cold air from the crevices of the surrounding rock which flows into the adit during spring and early summer. It stops at the end of summer, depending on the outside temperatures, and the ice starts to melt.  For this to work, the rock must have decent crevices, allowing a continual air current flowing through the rock. The hillside is formed by loose boulders with numerous clefts. During winter a convection of cold air happens, which cools down the rocks and gets warmed by the rock. The temperature difference is the reason for the air flow. In spring the convection changes its direction, now the warm air from outside gets cooled by the cold rocks and leaves the boulders at the foot, right where the Ice Mine is located.  The cold rocks get warmed by the air current, as much as the air is cooled down, and so the convection comes to an end usually by late summer.”

As we were driving out of the state park we made one other stop.  I liked a stream of water of which I caught a glimpse.  The stream of water is Laurel Run, which flows under Trough Creek Drive to Trough Creek.

I think the foliage in the picture of Laurel Run is Mountain Laurel. Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron are abundant in Trough Creek State Park. I would love to return to the park one day and see these shrubs in bloom.

From Trough Creek State Park we drove back to Ridenour Overlook, where we had stopped on Tuesday on our way to the airbnb.  I had hoped for a nicer view with better weather.  The view was not better.  It was overcast and the mountain tops were in low-hanging clouds.  I didn’t take any pictures.  In fact, I didn’t even get out of the car!

At this point Bob and I discussed the purchase of rechargeable walkie talkies.  When Bob was hiking to the Balanced Rock, it would have been helpful if we had walkie talkies.  Our cell phones had no signal.  Bob could have used a walkie talkie to let me know it was taking longer than expected on the trail because he made a wrong turn.  I was beginning to worry because he was gone longer than expected.  We decided to buy a pair of walkie talkies at Walmart in Duncansville PA.  Bob placed the order, and we began our drive there.  We stopped in Huntingdon for lunch at Hoss’s Steakhouse.  After lunch we continued our drive.  We picked up the walkie talkies and drove back to our airbnb.  

What a nice afternoon it was!  We enjoyed some time in the sun, sitting on the patio at our airbnb.

We returned home from Martinsburg on Friday, March 25. What a wonderful 3-night vacation we had! Guess what?!? We just booked another 3-night stay at the same airbnb for early summer!