Pilgrim leaves crowd the air with their falling every October. The journey is always the same. — Linda Pastan in Carnival Evening
The Baltimore Camera Club recently arranged a member trip to West Virginia. In the past they have gone more to the north, closer to Canaan Valley, Dolly Sods and Seneca Rocks. Happily this time they went to Pocahontas County, which is my favorite area of WV.
Lodging was arranged at the Inn at Mountain Quest in Frost, WV, about 18 miles from Marlinton, which is the main town in the area. The rooms were a surprise. I was expecting rather old style rooms or rooms you might find at a B&B. The rooms were very nice, very comfortable, and rather delightfully eclectic in design, reflecting a space theme, an African savannah, and an extremely modern black and white design (my room) among others I didn’t see.
Raj agreed to share the ride with me, and we stuck together for the whole trip. We went directly to Beartown State Park, which was the furthest from the Inn of the places I wanted to see, so that on the following days, travel would be at least a little shorter.
Beartown was all about rocks and ferns from a boardwalk. In the right light, it could be pretty neat, but the light wasn’t really helpful.
The next morning, after a really fine breakfast, some spiderweb
and foggy tree photos, we headed for the Falls at Hills Creek. Before we even hit the falls, a pond right across the road had some good fall reflections. At the Falls, the lower falls has the largest drop at 63 feet, with a very good viewing platform. So I went right down to the bottom on a boardwalk followed by a metal stairwell and more boardwalk, planning to be able to stop at the others on the way back to catch my breath.
The walk is kind of steep, especially carrying a tripod and backpack, but you just need to take your time and rest when need to and it isn’t too bad.
I had a chance to rest at Middle Falls to take some more shots. By this time, the sky seemed to be clearing even more, so waiting for the clouds to hide the sun was getting a little tedious, but I still like this middle falls shot with partial sun on the rocks.
After the Falls we hit the Cranberry Glades Boardwalk, which I think is better in the spring. I did shoot some dried ferns and a cecropia moth caterpillar, but nothing really exciting. To end the day we drove up the Highland Scenic Highway. In some areas, the colors were doing fairly well, but I just couldn’t find a particular tree or color mass that excited me.
On Sunday morning we stopped at a place Raj had seen on Saturday, with a pond reflecting an old weathered barn. The mist cooperated, and we stayed there a while, before moving on to Watoga State Park. Some nice fall reflections in the lake, but nothing much else, so we started home.
Rooms and food at the Inn were excellent, but the Inn was almost 20 miles east of Marlinton, and most of the areas I preferred were west of Marlinton, so there was a lot of traveling for Raj and me. Others went to the Cass Railroad, the radio telescope at Green Bank, and the windmill farm, all to the north. Bottom line: good trip!