Rockbridge State Nature Preserve

Happy Thankful Thursday,

While on our trip in Ohio we found the Rockbridge State Nature Preserve. We enjoyed a great loop trail that was very birdy. The park is known for it's natural rock bridge or arch. The Wood Thrushes were everywhere, singing and just hopping along on the trail in front of us. 

We started off on this trail, which was next to this farm land. Very pretty location, we could hear the cows nearby mooing. It was hard to believe this trail was going to lead us to a natural bridge. 


"A walk in nature walks the soul back home." Mary Davis

We entered the woods, we saw and heard a lot of Wood Thrushes. 

The Natural Bridge. 

Birds seen in the forest and along the trail, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush, American Goldfinch, Scarlet Tanager, Common Yellowthroat Warbler,  White-throated Sparrow and more Wood Thrushes. 

Some pretty wildflowers along the trail. 

"Nature is the art of God." Dante Alghieri

Looking up from underneath a view of the natural bridge and a waterfall. 

A beautiful sky and the farm land, a view on our walk back to our car. 

A peek at the near by farm. 

I am thankful for all the park lands that are set aside and are kept as green spaces and all natural. 

I am thankful to be healthy to enjoy all these wonderful parks and trails for hiking. 
I am thankful for all your visits and comments. 

Thank you Michelle for hostingHappy Monday, enjoy your day and new week! Thankful Thursday

Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday

Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!

Old Man's Cave at Hocking Hills State Park

Happy Monday, enjoy your day and new week!

Happy Memorial Day, thanks to our veterans and  current military who give all to protect us!

I am sharing more from Hocking Hills State Park and our road trip.  These are images from Ohio and from our hike to Old Man's Cave. We got our exercise on this hike, there were too many steps to count. We went up and we went down, all on a loop hike all around Old Man's Cave. There are 3 waterfalls, The Upper Falls was closest to the the parking lot, the others were a hike away. Considering we were there on a week day, the place was crowded.

There is a story of  an old man in the 1800's made the recess cave his home.

So many steps, I made a mosaic showing some of the steps we had to walk up and down. After these hikes my legs felt like rubber, since we did 3 parts of this park in one day.

The trail went over this bridge took us to the Lower Falls.

Lower Falls at the Old Man's Cave.

The Trillium wildflowers were plentiful.

Looking out of the Old Man's Cave.

It was a little confusing at Old Man's Cave  we saw a few signs that said Upper Falls and Lower Falls. It seems there were 2 Upper Falls in different areas.

A couple of Northern Rough-winged Swallows near the falls and cave.

The was the Upper Falls by the parking lot just  a nice short walk.

Hubby and I enjoyed this park and all the hikes we did. I still have more from Ohio visit and more Ohio parks to share. I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.

Thanks to the hosting team of Our World Tuesday!

I hope to see you there. Thanks to the host today. Enjoy your day and new week ahead.

As always I thank you for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments.

Saturday's Critters #232

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

Happy Memorial Day weekend!  I hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

If you love all God's creatures like I do and also like to blog about them and take critter photos this is where you can share your critter post. Link up your post and share your critters, join in with my critter party ! You can share any kind of critters the real ones, pretend ones, statues and paintings, a new or old post!

Back at home, we took a walk in a local park with my hubby and brother. We saw some awesome birds!
The American Bittern was one of the first birds we saw on the trail at North Point State Park in Baltimore County, Maryland.

One of the many Tree Swallows.

Great Blue Heron

Double-crested Cormorants on the Chesapeake Bay.

Bullfrog in the marshes

Osprey with a fish

How many snakes do you see? It is a warm sunny day so all the snakes, frogs and turtles were out enjoying the sunshine.

Slider turtle line-up

Below we saw the various stages of the Little Blue Heron, the all white juvenile, the mottled juvenile and the adult Little Blue.

The Little Blue Heron

We saw a couple of Bald Eagles too.

We enjoyed a walk on the Black Marsh Trail at the park, my brother joined us and probably took a thousand photos. I enjoy you all enjoy my birds and critter photos. 

I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments this past year ! 

Here is a list of my linky parties;

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.

Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

Happy Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday, 

Sorry my last post was out of order, that post was actually our 2nd day of our trip. This is the first day we arrived. Recently hubby and I enjoyed a road trip starting from our home in Maryland we drove to Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and back home to Maryland. I took way too many photos to share, so I will highlight some of the areas we visited. 

We started off the trip in Logan Ohio, after a 6-7 hour car ride we needed to take a walk and stretch our legs. So our first afternoon we visited Strouds Run State Park for a walk and Lake Logan for the sunset. 

The Strouds Run SP trail had a lot of wildflowers, birds and pretty views of the river and lake. Birds seen were the Canada Geese, Eastern Kingbird, Wood Thrush, Eastern Bluebird, American Redstarts and Song Sparrows. 



A pair of Eastern Bluebirds.

"Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees." John Muir

A colorful American Redstart.

We saw many different wildflowers along the trail, I am not sure of the id.

A view of the Strouds Run, the Redbud Trees across the way were pretty. A lovely blue sky day too. I believe the muddy waters are due to the heavy rains from the previous day. 

After checking into our Logan hotel and having a nice dinner, we drove to Lake Logan to see the sun setting.

MY mosaic of Lake Logan, American Robin, Geese, Robin with a Song Sparrow, me and hubby's shadow, Song Sparrow, Eastern Kingbird, Yellow Warbler and the sun setting over the lake.

A pretty Yellow Warbler, the male has a red streaky breast.

The Sunset at Lake Logan, Ohio

"Live for the moments that take your breath away." unknown

I am thankful for all the beauty we see, birds, flowers and sunsets.
I am thankful to be able to take a road trip.
I am thankful for all your visits and comments. 

Thank you Michelle for hostingHappy Monday, enjoy your day and new week! Thankful Thursday

Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday

Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!

Hocking Hill State Park

Happy Monday, wishing everyone a great day and new week!

I first learned about Hocking Hills State Park  in Logan Ohio from Betsy from Tennessee
Betsy blogged about their hikes to the waterfalls and shared her beautiful photos. You can check out her blog post about Betsy's visit to the park. After seeing Betsy's post  I knew I had to add this park to my list of places to visit so hubby and I added Hocking Hills onto our recent May road trip.

The park has many waterfalls, cliffs and recessed caves, gorges, cool rock outcrops and a pretty forest. I took close to 1300 hundred photos while on an 11 day road trip. I will try not to post too many,  :)  and only show the highlights. The highlights in Hocking Hills were the Cedar Falls, Old Man's Cave and Ash Cave. Old Man's Cave was such a big area, I will do that section on another post. I did not want to overload you with too many photos on one post. We loved Ash Cave so much we went back the next day too.

The Cedar Falls in Hocking Hills State Park in Logan Ohio.

We started off early each morning and hiked almost till dinner time.

The Cedar Falls was beautiful, just enough water to look lovely.

The cliff walls near the Cedar Falls was a beautiful sight, I found some Pine Siskins going in and out of the little holes, maybe a nesting area?

A distant zoom of 2 Pine Siskins, they were very high on the rock wall. It sounded like there were hundreds of them around.

After a short drive, we took the trail to Ash Cave. The trail was mostly flat until you reach the recessed area and little falls.

A view of the Ash Cave and waterfall.

I am guessing these are Rock Pigeons, they were going in and out of these little holes in the cave.

The trillium wildflowers seemed to be common along the trails.

Behind the falls at Ash Cave.

The Ash Cave trail was a loop if you did not want to back track. We walked the loop, this is looking back at Ash Cave from the other side of the trail.

If you are ever in the area I highly recommend a visit to Hocking Hills State Park. We never expected to see such sights in Ohio!  I hope you enjoyed my post and photos. More to come later.

Thanks to the hosting team of Our World Tuesday!

I hope to see you there. Thanks to the host today. Enjoy your day and new week ahead.

As always I thank you for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments.

Saturday's Critters # 231

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

If you love all God's creatures like I do and also like to blog about them and take critter photos this is where you can share your critter post. Link up your post and share your critters, join in with my critter party ! You can share any kind of critters the real ones, pretend ones, statues and paintings, a new or old post!

These are some of my yard birds during the end of April and part of May. The chipmunks enjoy the bird seed along with the birds and squirrels.

One of my favorite migrating Spring birds, is the Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

The farm down the street from me has 3 baby horses, they are so cute. There are 2 seen on this photo.

The Chipping Sparrows have returned to the yard.

The chipmunks enjoy seed dropped by the birds.

The female Cardinal is a regular visitor.

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is a new yard bird, I've never seen them on my feeders before.

Even the Goldfinch in the background is wondering why the warbler is at the feeder, lol.

I hope you enjoyed my bird and critter photos. I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments this past year !

Here is a list of my linky parties;

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.

Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!