14 September 2024 Visiting Friends at Parker Dam State Park

We traveled to Parker Dam to meet geocaching friends for a day of fun and socialization.

This rock is a magnet for park visitors.

Junco

Along the boardwalk at the waters' edge

Pale asters blooming at the edge of the wetlands

Heading into the woods

Chicken of the Woods was plentiful on the trees.

16 September 2023 Visiting Parker Dam With Friends

It was time for our annual visit to Parker Dam to meet with friends from Geocaching. The ammo can toss was very competitive this year. After our visit we spent time enjoying the park and fall nature sights.

The small pond near the pavillion is a great spot to see a cedar waxwing.

The great blue heron was a bit of a surprise.

The true surprise was this yellowlegs.

Butterflies and bees were visiting the park's goldenrod.

Late summer web building

A surprise osprey sighting

17 September 2022 Day with Friends at Parker Dam State Park

We have been setting aside a Saturday to visit with friends at Parker Dam for a number of years.  We are all joined together with a love of geocaching and a love of the outdoors.  Today the weather was our friend.  The event organizer started off the ammo can toss event.

Ali and I take a break from the event each year to look for wildflowers and birds.  There were no herons today as we took a peaceful walk.

Asters were looking good.

Bees work no matter what.  They always appear to be tireless.

After we left the park we made our way to a wetlands area to look for a geocache.

I wasn't surprised to see a rattlesnake.  I was surprised to see one this big!  Thankfully, it was calm while I was taking images.

Juvenile cedar waxwings were in numbers.

The younger turkeys passing through were a bit of a surprise.

These gatherings are always too short.  It also seems every year another one or two of us is gone.

18 September 2021 Visiting Parker Dam

We were happy to make a visit to Parker Dam to visit with friends we have made through Geocaching.  It was a wonderful fall day and a perfect time to visit.  We both participated in the ammo can toss.  Neither of us won, but I believe Ali's toss went farther.

We had an interesting treat as the host Redbat brought an assortment of the e-bikes to the event.  They were available for rides.  We both enjoyed our first attempt with an e-bike and continue to talk about them.

After the event we walked a familiar trail to look for late season wildflowers.

After leaving Parker Dam we moved around to visit another area of the park and complete a historical Adventure Lab visiting old structures and places.

The original park headquarters and communal dining hall.  It was a different time.

The communal showers

After we left the park, we stopped by a wetlands area for another find.  We spotted blue vervain and were treated to a sighting of a kestrel.

28 September 2008 Ohiopyle

It was the last day of vacation.  We decided to return to Ohiopyle.  The water slides were the high point of our first visit here.  We hadn't tried to visit earlier on vacation as the weekend crowds had overflowed the parking.  Today it was a quiet weekday.  The water slides were also quiet compared to the intense flow of our first visit, but still a great place to stop.  The roaring water had been replaced with a gentle flow through the slides.

We also visited nearby Cucumber Falls.  The low water levels gave a single plunge.  It was an attracive waterfall and teh quiet Monday gathering made for easy visiting during the pandemic.

After the waterfalls we made a quick trip to see the Yough River up close.  Rain was moving in so our visit was short, but we were there while two paddlers came through the roaring water.

7 June 2020 Bendigo State Park

 Bendigo State Park is a tiny state park in Pennsylvania.  It is near St. Marys and a very popular place for the locals to visit with a campground and a pool in addition to the the natural beauty of a branch of the Clarion River and the surrounding woods.  It would normally be very busy with a nearly full or full parking lot.  With COVID, ninety percent of the parking lot was empty.  The pool was closed.  We were mostly alone in the park.

The East Branch of the Clarion River is very attractive.  A few park visitors were by the water.

The quiet park was even quieter along the trail in the woods.

Lizzie seemed quite happy with the adventure.