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| Washington's Headquarters during the Valley Forge encampment |
Kali and I have come to enjoy the fairly strenuous 4-mile Mount Misery-Mount Joy loop hike. We usually climb and descend Mount Misery first, cross Valley Creek (which separates the two hills), and then return by climbing and descending Mount Joy. However, last Sunday, I suggested that we complete the hike in reverse. At the end, Kali said that she didn't have much of a preference for direction.
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| Barren understory with stiltgrass |
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| Autumn colors - though most trees remain green |
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| Kali passing a large rock slab on Mount Joy |
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| Valley Creek downstream of the footbridge |
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| Valley Creek upstream of the footbridge |
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| Scott captured on the footbridge |
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| Wrapped Roots |
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| Downed trees in the woods along the Mount Misery Trail |
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| Autumn leaves at the base of a maple tree |
9 comments:
Great images, Scott. I particularly like the one of the wall. I've never been to Valley Forge; your photos show it to be a place worth visiting. Too bad about the deer problem there, though.
Looks like a beautiful place to visit in the fall. Nice hiking weather and lovely colors.
I walked that trial the last time I was at Valley Forge--some years ago now. Thanks for showing it to me again!
Packrat: Kali and I find ourselves at Valley Forge with increasing frequency, probably because the park is among the largest and most accessible open spaces in the area. Though my images are often taken in the woods, the vast majority of the park consists of relatively uninteresting open, grassy fields with replicas of the soldiers' huts and memorials spread throughout. The vistas give the visitor a nice feel for the rolling landscape, and most of the woodlands had undoubtedly been cleared for agriculture when the Continental Army camped there in the winter of 1775-6, but we don't venture through the grasslands very often.
The deer are now being controlled using sharpshooters hunting over bait at night. This is the first national park that has begun to control its deer population. You can probably imagine how controversial it was when the program started two years ago. Kali and I did see three deer while we were walking, but before the cull began, it was not uncommon to see groups of 20 deer.
I find the factory in the woods to be really fascinating. It's about halfway up the steep, rocky slope on Mount Misery, so it's not near any roads that would be useful for transporting goods. I have no idea what the factory was creating, and there are no signs around it to explain its function.
Robin Andrea: The conditions were absolutely perfect for hiking. In fact, I had intended to include in the post a short account of our lunch break. We stopped at a picnic table midway through the walk to eat an energy bar and an apple. We were sitting out in the open, and the autumn sun was warming one side of my body while just the hint of a breeze was cooling the other half of my body. We were near Valley Creek, so we could hear the stream splashing gently in its bed, and there was a mockingbird audible in the distance. I just sat for a minute, completely present in the moment, thinking that this is heaven.
Carolyn: There are miles of trails through the park, but Kali and I are gravitating to the Mount Misery-Mount Joy loop with increasing frequency. Valley Forge certainly is a nice place to spend some time.
Nice tour, Scott, I really liked the photos of the leaves among the rocks and roots. I can't believe that parks can be shut down in this way - who owns them anyway? Here you can't close a public path except in exceptional circumstances, such as when paths were closed in agricultural areas during the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak some years ago.
John: Valley Forge National Park is owned by the federal government and administered by the National Park Service. If there is no staff to patrol and maintain the parks, they close them as they did during the recent government shutdown. Most people would agree that shutting down the parks is ridiculous but, in reality, what if someone broke a leg in one of the huge, remote western national parks? There would be no one to rescue an injured hiker, so I can see how they would feel the need to close the parks.
Thanks for the compliment about the images of the leaves among the roots and rocks. (Obviously) they struck me as interesting, too.
It was a root beer bottling plant.
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