Hello again, this week I left my home state and adventured to almost heaven – West Virgina. I travailed three short trails, two at Blackwater Falls State Park and one in Monongahela National Forest. I started the day a bit earlier than usual, I woke up at 7 than was actually fast about getting on the road. As usual I brought my tripod for the waterfalls. As I drove into West Virgina, as obligatory, I played Country Roads when entering the state. Ironically the road was closer to a country road in Virgina and more of a freeway in West Virgina. After finishing the almost three hour drive, I arrived at Backwater Falls. I then went to the trail to the falls, or more accurately an extremely short path with a boardwalk. The falls were quite pretty and I went down the boardwalk to set up my tripod. Since it was a cloudy day, unlike last week, I was able to lower the shutter speed and achieve the luscious flowing water. See header photo. Here the trees where just starting to change with hints of red and orange flowing into the photo. After taking a few more photos of the falls I went to leave and as I was leaving I came across another photographer who was also bringing her tripod to take photos of the falls. She was a lady in her 50s and recently retired to spend more time taking photos. We had a good conversation about photography in general that lasted well over 15 minutes. After retracing the short 0.2 mile path, I returned to my car to drive to the other waterfall this park had. During the short drive I passed an overlook of the Blackwater river valley where I took some photos.

One of the most interesting observations from this trip is how the fall foliage varied from place to place. In this spot fall was just poking in yet others looked like peak fall and yet in a few places it might as well had been summer! I suspect the primary difference is the type of trees growing in the area, in an area with a lot of maples, it is hard to deny it’s fall with their brilliant red leaves. After taking this photo, I returned to the car for the drive to the next waterfall.

The second waterfall named Elakala Falls had an equally short path. However, getting into the gorge to take photos of the falls was a different situation. My first attempt to get down just resulted in me getting muddy, the second time, I crossed the bridge to the other side of the falls and I managed to get even more muddy, but I eventually made it to the base of the fall. Finally, after getting down, I realized that if I had walked a little further, I would have found a much easier and saner way down, but needless, I made it. This fall, though smaller than the first, I actually thought was the prettier of the two!

One of the cool things with these falls is the spinning water at the base of the falls which created an interesting look with the longer exposure. After taking this photo and a few others that can be seen at the bottom of the page, I climbed out of the gorge the sane way and made the short return to my car. From here, I drove to my final destination, Table Rock in Monongahela National Forest. This drive was a fairly long 45 minutes from the falls despite being quite close in mileage. This was because most of the route was on a gravel road where the fastest I could drive was about 15mph. Also, I learned to disregard Google maps as the route it wanted me to go apparently required fording a small stream at least according to people on Alltrails. The gravel road I drove on was beautiful surrounded by trees broken up at times with clearings. I stopped at one of the larger clearings.

Upon closer examination, I learned that these clearings were actually bogs and had some fruit growing which I later learned were cranberries! I am still amazed by the little white puff balls growing, the brilliance of the leaves and how they blended and contrasted together. In sum, the little place was just ethereal. While writing this blog post, I did research and learned there are countless small bogs in this National Forest and to the south of the Forest, there is a stretch of 750 acres of these bogs. At some point, I may make a trip to that part of the forest. Fun fact, apparently the glades in this forest most closely resemble the “muskegs” in Canada and northern parts of the US with many of the plants present being the southernmost point they can be found. Also apparently there are many carnivorous plants in these bogs too! After spending a fair bit of time admiring the beauty of this little place, I returned to the drive.

I arrived at the trailhead and was the only car in the parking area. The path began like most, meandering through the forest. The trail was relatively flat with at times a little elevation gain but not much. Towards the end of the trail, the path became fairly muddy despite no recent rain and it could be quite treacherous after recent rain.

The view at the end of the trail was gorgeous. By myself with a 180° panorama of the region. Hints of fall dotted everywhere, cascades of blues as the Blue Ridge Mountains continued in the distance. Here I stayed for almost 45 minutes eating a late lunch, taking photos, and basking in the brilliance of this place. Their are more photos of this lovely place at the bottom.

Eventually I pulled myself up and decided to return. As I was leaving, a couple came to admire the overlook. I briefly said hello and continued on the trail for the relaxing walk back. When driving down the gravel road, I realized I had come at a good time as I passed multiple cars on the descent, a slightly difficult feat in a minivan on a one lane road at times requiring patience, but all was good. The drive back as the drive there was relaxing for the most part. I stopped at a couple of the scenic overlooks as I was in no rush and managed to get back home around 7:30. Overall, a full and fun great day in West Virgina.

Well that’s the end of this post, thanks for reading, and hope you have a great rest of your day!

Bonus Photos