More West Virginia

Happy Monday, enjoy your day and new week!


I wanted to share some more from our road trip May 2018 taken in West Virginia, New River Gorge and the Babcock State Park and the Glade Creek Grist Mill. These are all beautiful places to visit, I highly recommend a visit.  

The Grandview at the New River Gorge.

The forest and mountains are a lovely sight. This is a spot for a birding festival in the spring. Lots of Warblers migrating through this area. 

This is a beautiful of the New River Gorge. 

I zoomed in on this train from the Grandview overlook. Looks like a lot of coal loaded on those train cars. 

Glade Creek Grist Mill is fairly new built in 1976. It is a re-creation of the mill known as Cooper's Mill. The mill provides for purchase homemade cornmeal to visitors depending on availability. 

A pretty view of the creek!

Thanks for your visit today!  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.

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

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thankful Thursday!


During our one night two day visit to the New River Gorge Bridge and National Park we visited the Sandstone Falls and the visitor center. They were working on the road back to the Sandstone Falls so it took a while to drive there. It was worth putting up with the road work to see this pretty spot of the park. Sandstone Falls is 1500 feet wide and is made up of a network of boardwalks and little islands.

Early morning fog was hanging around the mountains near the New River.

The Sandstone Falls at the New River Gorge Park. It was a pretty day for a hike at the park and waterfalls.

Sitting in the car waiting our turn for the road to open back up, I noticed a few Baltimore Orioles in the trees in from the car.

Some of the birds seen on the Sandstone Falls island walk. Great-crested Flycatcher, Chickadee, Cardinal and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

I watched two Yellow-billed Cuckoos in a tree top. I was only able to capture one in my photos. 

The beautiful Indigo Bunting. 

The boardwalk trail leads to several islands at the Sandstone Falls. 

Swallowtail butterflies were hanging about.

The Great-crested Flycatcher posed for a photo. 

Sandstone Falls is part of the New River Gorge National Park, we stopped at the visitor center for a quick visit. There was this pretty Trumpet Honeysuckle outside the visitor center. I like the display of stones with the message:

"Our Parks, our watersheds, they belong to us all. Each one of us must help to protect the watershed we live in."

I am thankful to all the people who keep their parks, towns and neighborhood clean. 

I am thankful to visit our National Parks, our country is beautiful. 

I am thankful for the road crews, they have a hard job. 

I am thankful for all your visits and comments. 




Thank you Michelle for hosting Thankful Thursday. 
Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday


Happy Monday, enjoy your day and new week!

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

New River Gorge

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

May 9th-10,  our Road Trip continued to the New River Gorge in West Virginia. We stayed one night and two days checking out the river, gorge and bridge trails. 

On October 20, 2018 is the 40th anniversary of the New River Bridge Day! They will close the New River Gorge bridge for Bridge Day. You can walk across the bridge, bungee jump, skydive or rappel or just enjoy the festival. There will be food and music. 

A view from the overlook at the New River. The New River has many rafting companies if you are interested in  going on a raft trip on the river. 

We took the road tour down to the river below the bridge. 

Various flowers and a Cardinal seen during our visit to the New River Gorge. 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies.

Stairs down to the New River Gorge overlook.  We stopped at one of the landings on the stair and a Hooded Warbler landed on the railing right next to me. I am not sure who was surprised more me or the bird. It happened too fast I could not get a photo. 

 

Thanks for your visit today!  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.

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

Cranberry Glades Botantical Area

Hubby and I had a long weekend away in West Virginia and Shenandoah. Hubby's main reason for the trip was to meet with a Caving Club and go spelunking. In case you do not know spelunking is a word for cave explorers. So, I tagged along for the weekend and did the driving. I am not into exploring caves, dark closed in places give me a fright. I did some research on the area and found out that the Cranberry Glades is a good place for birding. After dropping hubby off , I took out my GPS and drove the 30 minutes or so to see the Cranberry Glades. My first stop was the very nice visitors center. They also had a nice shop, I picked up a butterfly guide book, tee shirt, a hat pin and a new hummingbird feeder. I do most of my shopping when hubby is not around. After checking out the many hummingbirds on the visitors centers  feeders and the butterflies on the plants, I drove the short distance to the actual Botanical Area.

The Botanical Area had a half mile trail that was all boardwalk.

The 750 acre glades are a grouping of peat bogs similar to some Canadian bogs. The land is highly acidic and support plants that are normally found at higher latitudes some are the pitcher plant and the cranberries and sundew. The weather is cool and wet comparable to New England. So glad, it was a beautiful day when I was there. The higher mountains surrounding the Glades form a bowl and draining the cool air downhill to the glades. The plants some rare seem to thrive in these conditions.



I used my new guide book to id this Great Spangled Fritallary

I was told at the visitor center that I timed my visit perfectly for the grass pink orchids that were in bloom. The Cranberry Glades are also known for the insect eating plants, one of which I saw was the Purple Pitcher Plant. The wildflowers were all just gorgeous! I heard a lot of birds in bushes along the walkway. Of course they just teased me and just gave me brief glimpses. I read that the Nashville and Mourning Warblers breed in this area. I was also actually hoping to see a black bear, no luck there. I guess that is a good thing I am not sure seeing a bear by myself would be a good thing.

Grass Pink Orchids

This is my post for Nature Notes please click on my link to go there and see more. You can also read about the passing of Bobbie of Almost There and see all the wonderful causes she stood for. God Bless You, Bobbie.

I am also linking in with Susan's Outdoor Wednesday visit Susan to see more great post.
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