hikes
A Cloudy Morning Hike In Hills Creek State Park.
It was a cool overcast morning when I awoke in my hotel in Mansfield on Sunday morning, where I was visiting my nephew Mikey. After a cup of coffee at the hotel I picked him up at his dormitory at the University. We were headed back to the Hills Creek State Park. Located in northcentral…
Read MoreFall Colors, Clouds And A Snake At Community Park
It’s been a busy couple of weeks and haven’t been able to keep up with my afternoon hikes. The Fall colors were peaking here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I have been walking in the Community Park near my home in Hazle Township Luzerne County. This post is from a hike I took on an mostly overcast…
Read MoreA Walk In The October Morning Fog
It was a cold October morning when I awoke at my home in Hazle Township, Luzerne County two Saturday ago. The temperature was 34 degrees as the sun rose in clear, deep blue skies. I decided to return to the PPL Wetlands in Salem Township to check out the Fall foliage and look for wildlife. They…
Read MoreAutumn Color On Display At Community Park.
After a couple of busy weeks, I finally have some free time so I’m trying to catch up with so some blog posts. I enjoy sharing photographs from my hikes here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. This post is from a hike I took in the Community Park located a few miles from my home here in…
Read MoreA Mid November Hike In The Now Leafless PPL Wetlands.
It has been over three weeks since my last visit to the PPL Wetlands in Salem Township, Luzerne County. On my last visit the Fall foliage was still near its peak. Not on Saturday when I returned. It is mid November and almost all of the leaves on the trees had fallen to the ground. …
Read MoreA Couple Of November Hikes in the PPL Wetlands
This past weekend I returned to the PPL Wetlands in Salem Township. Luzerne County for a couple of late November hikes. The trees in the wetlands and river lands were now bare and the trails bleak. And most of the abundant wildlife I observe in the warmer months has either left the wetlands and headed…
Read MoreA Thanksgiving Day Hike At Community Park.
Heavy rain was in the forecast for Thanksgiving Day this year. This is not the worst forecast this time of year. I have experienced many Thanksgivings with snow on the ground here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. And it did rain in the morning. However, it cleared up around 11 a.m. and the sun was shining and…
Read MoreA Bald Eagle And Mockingbird On Another Hike In The PPL Wetlands
It was Sunday , and, once again, I returned for a hike in the PPL Wetlands in Salem Township Luzerne County. I arrived around 9 a.m. under clear blue skies, brilliant sunshine, with seasonably cold temperatures in the mid-30’s. The trees along the trail were bare and the wetlands again were quiet. The early sun…
Read MoreExploring The Remains Of The Mahanoy Plane: A Hike Into Our Coal Mining Past
I have been re-reading a book about the anthracite coal mining history of our area, “The Miners” by Mary Siegel Tyson. The book is about her ancestors who worked in these deep and dangerous anthracite coal mines in the Hazleton area of Luzerne County. In the first chapter of the book reference was made to…
Read MoreA Hike Along The Raging Lehigh River.
A snow storm, or as we call it nor’easter, dumped over a foot of snow here in Northeastern Pennsylvania last week. Another storm brought warm temperatures and over three inches of rain on Christmas Eve. The rain and rapid snow melt caused small stream flooding and swelled our local rivers. I decided to drive to …
Read MoreA Cold December Hike To Anson B. Nixon Park In Kennett Square
On the morning after my recent visit to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square I awoke early at the Fairfield Hotel on East Baltimore Pike. I decided to walk to the Anson B. Nixon Park on the outskirts of the town. I had visited this local community park on my last visit in July. Located near …
Read MoreA Couple Of December Hikes in the PPL Wetlands
I haven’t had a lot of time to post here on my blog these past few weeks but I’m finally catching up on some of my hikes. So here are some photographs and thoughts from a couple of December hikes I took in the PPL Wetlands in Salem Township, Luzerne County, one of my favorite…
Read MoreA Visit to the Rain Swollen Susquehanna River.
As I mentioned in a previous post, a nor’easter snow storm followed by a heavy rain storm flooded our streams and rivers here in Northeastern Pennsylvania last month. The day after the Christmas rain storm I drove to the PPL Wetlands in Salem Township, Luzerne County to observe the rain swollen Susquehanna River. The swift…
Read MoreJanuary Sunshine At The PPL Wetlands
Many days this month were dreary here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Cloudy, windy and cold they were. It was nice to see clear blue skies when I awoke last Saturday morning. It was a cold 18 degrees here in Hazle Township, Luzerne County. But I knew that the clear skies meant there would be abundant January…
Read MoreA Wintery Hike On The Broad Mountain In Carbon County
The weather forecast called for clear skies and cold temperatures last Sunday. I decided to drive to the Broad Mountain in Carbon County and hike out to the overlook atop the Lehigh River Gorge. It was partly cloudy and a cold 25 degrees when I arrived early in the morning at the State Game Lands…
Read MoreJanuary Thaw? A Hike At The PPL Wetlands
Most years in January, when I was growing up here in Northeastern Pennsylvania , after a few weeks of frigid arctic air, we would have a “January thaw”. This year we haven’t had any real frigid arctic weather so I am not sure if the mild weather we had again last week can be called…
Read MoreNot Much Frozen Water In The Lehigh River Gorge
Usually, in January, there are many forms of frozen water here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Snow, sleet, and all kinds of ice. Not this year, another mild Winter has resulted in only light snow cover and only at the highest elevations near my home in Luzerne County. On my hike in the PPL Wetlands last Saturday…
Read MoreWinter Returns To The PPL Wetlands And Riverlands
The mild weather we’ve had this Winter continued this past week, until a cold front moved though our area on Friday . I awoke Saturday morning with a temperature of 18 degrees and a strong northwesterly wind at my home here in Hazle Township. Skies were mostly clear. There was a dusting to a half…
Read MoreSunshine, And Some Ice At The Lehigh River Gorge
The cold air that started to filter in Northeastern Pennsylvania on Friday, settled in Saturday night. I awoke on Sunday morning to clear blue skies, a strong wind a frigid, but average in these parts, 18 degrees. I decided to return to the Lehigh River Gorge in Rockport to see how much ice had formed…
Read MoreSunshine, Ice And Birds At The PPL Wetlands
The cold weather continued in Northeastern Pennsylvania last week . On Saturday, it was windy and a frigid 16 degrees at my home in Hazle Township, Luzerne County. . The skies was clear and so I decided to walk in the sunshine at the PPL Wetlands in Salem Township and see if I could find…
Read MoreIce And Snow At The Lehigh Gorge
It was the last day in January and we finally got seasonably cold weather, with some ice and snow, here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It was cloudy and cold on Sunday morning. with predictions of a major snowfall, when I decided to venture back down into the Lehigh River Gorge at Rockport. A few years ago…
Read MoreSome Winter Visitors To My Backyard
After a couple of mild weeks in December, colder weather, and snow, returned to our area here in Northeastern Pennsylvania in January. But, at my home in Hazle Township, Luzerne County, the weather really doesn’t matter to the Winter visitors to my backyard. They show up at my feeders regardless of the weather. I thought…
Read MoreInauguration Day Observations In Our Nation’s Capital, And A Unexpected Tour Of St. Matthew’s
It was overcast and cold when I arrived near the Capitol after my two mile morning walk on Inauguration Day. This was the closest you could approach the Capitol, at New Jersey Avenue and D Street NW . The security fence was about five blocks from the Capitol building. (Here is a link to my…
Read MoreA Green Ridge And West Hazleton Sunny Winter Walk, With A Lot Of Memories
A heavy nor’easter storm dumped almost two feet of snow on parts of Northeastern Pennsylvania two weeks ago. This kept me from my usual hike in the PPL Wetlands last weekend. Instead, I stayed close to home and walked the streets of the Green Ridge neighborhood of Hazle Township and in the adjoining West Hazleton…
Read MoreInauguration Day Three: An Early Morning Walk To The Lincoln Memorial
I awoke early in Washington DC on January 21, the day after the Presidential Inauguration. I hoped to be able to walk to the Lincoln Memorial. I wasn’t sure if I could get there because of the security measures put in place for the Inauguration. It was partly cloudy and a colder 36 degrees when…
Read MoreA Snowy Green Ridge And West Hazleton Walk
The snow pack was still deep here in Hazle Township last Sunday. And it was snowing again! So, instead of my usual hikes in one of the nearby parks, I decided to hike on the streets of Green Ridge and West Hazleton, and to again share some of my memories on my walk. It was…
Read MoreNo Anhinga And Only One Alligator At The Anhinga Trail In The Everglades , Florida Day Two.
Of course I was up early Thursday morning, my first full day in Florida in over a year. The sun rose at 6: 54 a.m. and I planned to be on the Anhinga Trail in the Royal Palm Visitor Center in the Everglades National Park to watch it. Located about 15 miles from my hotel…
Read MoreFlorida Day Two: An Evening Walk At Anhinga Trail And Finally, An Anhinga Sighting
After my morning hike on the Anhinga Trail In the Everglades National Park, I edited some photographs, attended a zoom meeting and decided to return to the Anhinga Trail in the evening to again enjoy the scenery and hopefully to see some wildlife. When I arrived cumulus clouds floated in the deep blues Florida skies.…
Read MoreFlorida Day Three. An Early Morning Drive to Flamingo, The Southern most Point In The Everglades
I was up even earlier on my third day in South Florida. I planned to visit Flamingo, about 47 miles from my hotel in Florida City, and the southernmost point in the Everglades. But first, I hoped to catch the sunrise in the cypress forests at the Pa Hay Okee Overlook. So I began my…
Read MoreFlorida Day Three: An Afternoon Hike On The Southern Glades Trail
Although I was a little tired from my five mile hike on the Coastal Prairie In Flamingo in the morning, I was in Florida and wanted to explore some more of this natural paradise. I saw some folks biking along one of the water channels on my drive back from Flamingo , so I returned…
Read More