Scotts Bluff Nebraska

About a half a lifetime ago, back in 2011, the boys went on a camping trip to the Dakotas, and it was the best outdoorsy experience of my life. As I work on my painting, it seems only reasonable to go back through the hundreds of pictures I took during that trip (and others) and attempt to paint some of those scenes...

Near Scotts Bluff Nebraska

After flying into Denver, we drove through the southeast corner of Wyoming (Cheyenne) and then into western Nebraska before heading north into the Black Hills of South Dakota and then on into North Dakota (Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit to be specific). The views around Scotts Bluff were amazing...

Armed with a bunch of large tubes of Charvin oil paints and a host of dirt-cheap canvas panels from Walmart (Daler Rowney and Royal & Langnickel brands), I've committed to getting over my fear of starting a painting. Maybe. Anyway, here's a rough sketch in thinned burnt sienna of the picture from July 30, 2011...

A rough sketch

... and the first layer of an oil painting sketch. The point of this exercise is to paint something quickly. Paint what you see. This was done in about 30 minutes. When it has tacked up in a few days, I will go back and clean it up. This will be primarily focused on the large bluff to the right, which is a hot mess at this point. But fixable. I'll also be adjusting the green tones of the grasslands. There are supposed to be brighter green highlights but everything is a little too olivey-brown. Part of this is the lighting for the picture - the colors are more vibrant on the canvas than they are in the photo.

Near Scotts Bluff Nebraska, 11" by 14"

I'm looking for a representation, not an exact duplication. This is something that is easy to get hung up on as a beginning artist. I don't need to copy the photograph (why would I...I already have the photograph). Evocative. Not a photocopy in paint.

Anyway, it's a Saturday. I did the thing - I made a painting. Tomorrow's another day...

Clouds

I've been enjoying my painting journey, and one of the things that I find the most interesting to paint, and in some ways something that I find the easiest, is skies.

One of the things that many of the online tutorial videos will tell you about landscapes is to be careful with the tendency to want to paint fluffy white clouds, as these can be unrealistic and trite.

Which I suppose can be true, but on the other hand, every time I look out my window, I see bright blue skies and fluffy white clouds. Maybe it's just the time of year...

Fluffy clouds out the front door.

Fluffy white clouds out the front

Fluffy clouds out the back, on a different day. It seems like I could take a picture like this every day this spring (at least, every day that it isn't overcast and raining, which is most of them).

More fluffy white clouds out the back

We also get some very dramatic skies in the early morning. This one was this morning. Strange how the mind adapts based on what is in your conscience at the moment, but I looked at this scene off the back deck of my house, with a cup of coffee in hand and Ryder at my side, and thought "naples yellow on the horizon, a touch of phthalo blue in the sky, and a lot of Payne's gray...bits of titanium white in the gaps in clouds to make them glow". Odd.

April 29, 2020, 7:55am

Cerulean blue, phthalo blue, Payne's gray, naples yellow, titanium white...

Feb 19, 2020, 6:59am (with interior light reflection)

Without going back and looking it up, I think the below was a marching band competition at Penncrest High School (back behind the old Granite Run Mall). I think I have to try to paint this one, without the football field in the foreground. Maybe put a lake with reflections in the foreground instead...

Fire in the Sky - October 12, 2019, 6:30pm

If nothing else, going through some of these pictures is a good reminder that despite the current situation, there is still beauty in the world.

A Bit of Beauty

Sometimes it's worth taking a moment to stop and savor a bit of beauty when it presents itself.

Fall Sunset

The other night, Ryder needed to go out and do his business. When I let him out, this is the sight that greeted me on the western horizon. I sat on the front step for a few moments. Within 5 minutes the colors had faded substantially. Within 10 minutes they were gone. But for those brief few moments, there was fire in the sky...

Double Rainbow

Twice in the last couple of weeks following evening rain showers, we have had beautiful double rainbows in almost exactly the same spot. Here is today's. There was a brief moment when it was a triple, but I don't think I caught it at the right moment despite many pictures. There may still be a hint of a third at top, or that may be wishful thinking.

Double Rainbow behind the house

Hiking with Gracie

Grace wanted to go hiking with Daddy, and it was a beautiful day with no particular plans, so she and I headed off into the Woodlawn Tract (now part of the First State National Monument) and did an easy 2.9 miles of walking in the woods.

Hike in Google Terrain from GPSVisualizer.com

We started in the same parking lot we often do because she had heard me tell of a cool old ruined farmhouse farther down a different branch of the trail than we had done on a few previous trips.

Hike in Google Hybrid from GPSVisualizer.com

The area is spiderwebbed with trails, and I know we've been all over this area, but apparently hadn't done the one little stretch of main trail that this old building was on (at least not with her).

Curly pigtail hair day

She wanted to take our good camera (Canon EOS Rebel T3) and take pictures on her own. [All pictures are taken entirely by her except the one she is in]

Stream

She very much enjoyed looking for flowers, pretty scenes and interesting plants to take pictures of.

The old ruined farmhouse

The picture taking time made our 2.9 miles over 1.5 hours a stroll at best, but the point wasn't to put in miles.

Old fieldstone retaining wall

We found purple flowers.

Purple flowers

And white flowers.

White flowers

And more white flowers.

More white flowers

On the way back to the car, she asked if we could go out again tomorrow, hike a different trail, and take more pictures. It's a definite possibility...

Ricketts Glen SP - Day 2 - Recap (Part 4)

Adams Falls and a Recap

As a short side trip from the parking lot before leaving, Adams Falls was a very pleasant surprise. Despite being perhaps jaded by what we had seen so far, this was one of the most interesting falls due to the incredible geology. The constricted entrance to the falls channeled the water into a relatively narrow cascade that had carved out a very nice plunge pool at the base, including one easy to see bowl where the water had scoured out a near perfect circle.

Adams Falls with plunge pools

The rock walls surrounding the falls pinched in from all sides.

Adams Falls

Even though swimming isn't allowed anywhere in here due to the danger, I'm thinking this would be a great place for a dip on a hot summer day...

Adams Falls

Of all the photogenic spots we had seen during the day, this was one of the best. 

Adams Falls pool, side feeder stream and cave (w/ice)

After spending a few more minutes admiring Adams, and not wanting to leave, we headed back to the cars, packed up and headed home. We were on the road by 2:35pm and home before 6.

Recap
The quick summary is that it is hard to imagine a much nicer hike within such a modest drive from home. Virtually every step of the hike was a good one. I am partial to water of any kind, and in that respect this gets unbelievably high marks. Its also perfect for photography, with non-stop opportunities for great shots.

Stream and rocks

The level of trail design and maintenance that you see here is certainly different from what you will see in many if not most places. Due to the traffic it gets, and the fact that it is one of the gems of the Pennsylvania State Park system, it is extremely well maintained. It has had a ton of work done over its 100-plus year existence. Most inclines have stepping stones or in many cases actual stone stairs. Solid bridges accompany any stream crossings. Paths range from well groomed dirt all the way to flagstone paths. Things are very well marked and it would be practically impossible to stray off the path (unintentionally).

The best paved path section

The trail, while I would not consider it difficult at all, is not a stroll down a country lane. There are a lot of steps, and slippery spots where the stones are wet and muddy. People with a fear of heights would have unavoidable issues in some places, with narrow rock ledges and exposed stone staircases climbing up rock walls being a frequent part of the trail. From an elevation standpoint, it was only about 150 feet up from the parking lot to Waters Meet, a stretch that contains three named falls, and that section could be done by anybody. The more difficult part is the 700+ feet of elevation gain up each of the two glens to the plateau at the top, but that happens in pretty manageable stages.

Huron with stone stairs

I don't know a whole lot about geology (despite having taken a college class many years ago), but I am fascinated by it. This is one of those places where the rocks in and of themselves are almost as cool as the water.

Geology above Shawnee

I would love to see this at different times of year. I am sure there will be less water in the stream in the summer, but everything would be green. For this trip, Spring hasn't really come to the glens yet, and the only significant green stuff we saw were the hemlocks and other evergreens. While things at home are well on the way to leafing out, they really aren't here as of yet, so the hardwood forest parts had not gotten over that bleak winter look. I'm sure Fall here would be amazing as well, but fallen wet leaves could make the footing pretty treacherous. I completely understand why the trail gets closed in winter. Way too dangerous.

Final verdict - In its own way, this is as nice a hike as I have been on. The Blacks Hills of SD and the Badlands of ND were a very different kind of beautiful, and Acadia is a different kind of magnificent water treat, but it is hard to imagine a more lovely waterfall/mountain stream hike. Especially within three hours of home. Scenery and photo ops get top marks. Climbing (which I am not a huge fan of) is very manageable and almost goes unnoticed. You won't get sweeping vistas here, nor will you get that otherworldly western terrain, but the rewards here are immense, and this has to be as good as it gets for eastern forest hikes.

Ricketts Glen SP - Day 2 - Ganoga Glen (Part 3)

Highland Trail and Ganoga Glen

At the top of Glen Leigh, we turn west onto the Highlands trail to cut across the top of the plateau and pick up the Falls trail at the top of Ganoga Glen on the other side. There is an earth cache up here that we won't be doing as I do not have the information ready to go with regards to multiple additional way points, and don't want to slow us down while I figure it out. No matter, I already know we will be back at some point, and I will be ready then. Midway along the Highlands trail we pass through Midway Crevasse, a cool spot where a huge piece of rock formation has broken off from the parent ledge 50 yards or so to the north and made its way downhill, fracturing as it went.

Midway Crevasse

Ganoga Glen is the steeper of the two sides (by a little) but we are going downhill on steps and switchbacks, so the hiking remains easy. The distractions remain spectacular as well. There are ten named waterfalls on this branch, including six big ones. 

Mohawk

Even the smaller ones are gorgeous, and could be the single centerpiece of a hike any other place.

Oneida - perfect "block" fall

Wave after wave of scenic beauty is becoming a bit mind-numbing. Almost. Until we get to Ganoga Falls, which at 94 feet is the crown jewel of the hike. Again, pictures do not do it justice, and the sound of the water pounding down the cliff and the feel of the cool mist spray is missing. I'm not sure what words would describe it properly. Awesome, the most overused word in the English language, would actually fit here very well. Not awesome in the "good" sense. Awesome in the "jaw-dropping-wow" sense. It was weird standing at the top. You could get to within a few feet of the edge on a rock ledge, and doing so and looking down didn't scare me at all. But standing back and watching Dave and Leo do exactly the same thing was bordering on terrifying. Its a very long way down onto a lot of rocks. Falling would be bad. Watching somebody else fall would also be bad.

Ganoga - view from the top

After an appropriate amount of gawking and picture taking, we followed the steps and switchbacks down to the bottom where we did more of the same, followed by a brief lunch of PB&J sandwiches and sourdough pretzel nuggets. Everything tastes better outdoors on the trail.

Ganoga (94 feet)

On the Glen Leigh side, we saw a few other people but not many. By the time we are coming down Ganoga Glen in the afternoon there is a steady trickle of people heading in both directions. Not exactly the Los Angeles freeway (which apparently this can be like on a nice summer day), but a routine occurrence. We have timed the hike perfectly in that regard as well it seems. I would have expected more people on a perfect Spring day. The handful we are seeing is no big deal, and every waterfall is not obstructed by swarms of other people taking pictures and wading around in the pools.

Seneca/Delaware was another combination falls like Shawnee/Huron which had some great geology, and great trail construction around the exposed rock walls.

Dropping into Seneca/Delaware

The remainder of the Ganoga side went all too quickly, with Delaware (37'), Mohican (39'), and the final pair of Tuscarora and Erie at 47 feet each.

Mohican (39 feet)

When we do come back, and we plan to, we will hike this the other way around, coming up Ganoga Glen and down Glen Leigh. It is a shame to have to approach any of these falls from the uphill side. As you come down, many of the best views of the falls are behind you. This is mitigated somewhat by the wonderful views you have of the glens opening up below you as you descend.

Tuscarora (47 feet)

1:12pm - We arrive back at Waters Meet, about 2:45 after reaching this point on the way up. We have done about 5.2 miles out of 7. My legs feel great but my feet are starting to feel some soreness. Nothing uncomfortable or alarming, just my feets' way of telling me that this isn't the same as sitting at a desk all day every day. It feels good.

2:02pm - We arrive back at the trailhead after a quiet walk back along Kitchen Creek. There is one last waterfall just below the parking lot on route 118, Adams Falls, and we will check that out before leaving. Especially since it is part of one of the two earth caches Dave and I are doing...

Next...Adams Falls and a Recap

Ricketts Glen SP - Day 2 - Glen Leigh (Part 2)

Waters Meet to the top of Glen Leigh
As we move upstream from Waters Meet, we can immediately see more waterfalls above us. They are coming one after another now, and the short stretches of stream between them are peppered with smaller falls and rapids. Its an embarrassment of riches from a scenic standpoint.

B Reynolds from beside (40 feet)

We are definitely climbing more now, but it is easy going, and I am almost oblivious to that fact due to the amazing scenery. At most of the falls, and in some other spots as well, the trail climbs up very well maintained sections of stone steps. This gives your quads a little bit of a workout, but is significantly easier than climbing the same kind of slope on a steeply angled dirt trail. That and the fact the we stop to admire every new waterfall and scenic spot, giving us lots of small breaks, makes the effort seem like nothing.

RB Ricketts (36 feet)

Between RB Ricketts and Ozone, we stop suddenly when Leo says "you don't see that every day." Very true. What you don't see every day is a porcupine from a distance of about 6 feet. This guy was waddling along right next to the trail, heading uphill away from the stream, and couldn't have been less concerned by our presence. Clearly a creature comfortable in its own skin, or its own coat of three inch needles as the case may be. When we stumbled upon him and then stopped to look at him, he didn't change course, break stride at all, or attempt to pick up the pace. He just kept waddling, ducked under a fallen log, and kept going up the hill.

Porcupine

The next large fall we came to was Ozone, a very nice one, and one of the larger ones it seemed, but I'm not sure how tall it is. The State Park handout from the trail head says 60 feet, which might be somewhat of an overstatement, but is probably a good number all told from top to bottom if measuring continuous water-travel distance and not pure height. The large wooden signs at a few locations on the trail all have it listed at 20 feet, which seems definitely too low a number (but probably is a good number for pure elevation difference). Whatever the truth is, it was a spectacular one.

Ozone - how high? (20? 60?)

The view from the top of Ozone was one of the better ones on the day, because the stream below the fall was very picturesque. As usual, anything with a panorama, or anything with a view up or down just doesn't translate into photos very well at all. Everything looks compressed and less spectacular. Scale gets lost.

Ozone - view from the top

Huron (41 feet) and Shawnee (30 feet) are a pair of nearly back to back falls separated by a rock walled alcove, like a small amphitheater carved out of the rock. The secluded alcove was one of a dozen or so places where we saw decent sized patches of ice, despite it being April 28 on a 55 degree day. This was one of my favorite spots of the day.

Shawnee - wedding cake (30 feet)

The last large fall on the Glen Leigh side was FL Ricketts, a 38 foot classic wedding cake, with the water spilling down a series of rock ledges like it was flowing down a staircase.

FL Ricketts (38 feet)

11:25am - We reach the top of Glen Leigh and its eight named waterfalls. Twelve down, ten to go. When we left the parking lot it was barely 40 degrees. Now it is probably mid to upper 50's, with bright blue sunny skies and a nice breeze. We couldn't ask for a nicer day. The hike is absolutely living up to its hype so far, and there is much more yet to come.

Next...Highland Trail and Ganoga Glen

Ricketts Glen SP - Day 2 - The Hike (Part 1)

Falls Trail and Highlands Trail

Monday dawned sunny and cool, with a temperature of 39(F) degrees at 7:00am. It seems like the three of us were all more or less awake to varying degrees well before 7, but we were not rushed for time, and so didn't get moving too early. We showered, had breakfast at the hotel, fiddled with gear, made sandwiches for lunch, and were on the road to the park by around 8:15am. Mifflinville is 32 miles and 40 minutes south of the park, and it was a pretty drive through mountain ridges and farmland. I had scoped out a few geocaches along the road to the park, but we were all anxious to get to the business at hand (and these weren't new counties), so we made no stops. By 9:10 we were parked in the lot off route 118 at the south end of the Falls Trail, and we set out at 9:25am.

Our hike, as shown on the map, is the classic Ricketts Glen hike. Kitchen Creek, coming down off the Allegheny Front, has carved a series of "glens" into the side of the mountain. Dropping nearly a thousand feet from top to bottom, the creek tumbles over 22 named waterfalls, and countless smaller ones, over a three mile north-south distance. The hike is in the shape of a "Y", with the Kitchen Creek section below the junction, known as Waters Meet. Glen Leigh is on the east (right) of the "Y" and Ganoga Glen is on the west (left). We hiked counter clockwise; up Kitchen Creek to Waters Meet, up Glen Leigh, across the Highlands Trail at the top of the mountain, down Ganoga Glen, and then back down Kitchen Creek to the starting point. All told, this is a 7.1 mile hike. There is about 1,000 feet of elevation gain, but most of that occurs as you climb one of the glens (between Waters Meet and the top), and happens over a distance of about one mile. I'm not crazy about climbs, but 1,000 feet doesn't seem too bad. We shall see...

At start...

9:25am - Setting off up the trail, I was immediately struck by two things; it was a lovely location, and it was quite chilly. I hadn't packed particularly well. Other than a couple of thin sleeveless hiking shirts, I only had a fleece vest (not enough for cold arms) and a much heavier fleece jacket (very quickly too warm). Or a rain jacket that would have quickly become my own personal sweat lodge (skip that).

On the trail

It is 1.8 miles from the route 118 trail head to Waters Meet, and the first mile or so of that was a very modest up hill grade. We walked along a beautiful noisy stream gurgling over rocks and small waterfalls too numerous to count. In any other spot, this would have been noteworthy enough, but knowing what was up ahead, this section of the stream was unfortunately all too easy to discount. This section also had the only traditional cache on the trail, but it was good to find one here (there are also a few earth caches, two of which we did successfully, but that comes later...).

Kitchen Creek, the flat part

There are three named falls below Waters Meet. The first is "Murray Reynolds", at a modest 16 feet. As the first one we came to, it seemed very big, and would be by most standards. It is actually one of the smallest named ones on the hike, but is a good one. It is a pair of chutes coming down around a central rock pillar, with a nice pool at the bottom. If it weren't 45 degrees with the stream temps near ice water, I am sure Leo would have gone swimming...

Murray Reynolds

The second is "Sheldon Reynolds" at 36 feet, or more than twice the size of the first. If that was "wow", then this was "WOW." This is maybe a cataract fall at the top and a cascade at the bottom. We are only two falls into the 22, but I am in awe. A quick look at the map shows that there are eleven more waterfalls bigger than this.

Sheldon Reynolds

The third is "Harrison Wright" at 27 feet. Different once again from the character of the previous two, and would seem to be a textbook curtain fall. We have gotten lucky (partly by plan). We couldn't have guessed that the weather would have been absolutely perfect, but since it is mid-Spring after a wet winter and Spring, there is a good amount of water in the stream, making the falls show themselves at their best.

Harrison Wright

10:32am - We arrive at Waters Meet. Standing near the bridge we can see more falls in both directions, a modest one off to the right on the Glen Leigh side, and a big one off to the left in the distance. There is amazing scenery everywhere you look. It is a bit overwhelming. We are not making very good time given that the hiking has been very easy thus far, but it is understandable due to the amount of stopping, gawking and picture taking we are doing.

Waters Meet - Ganoga Glen (L) and Glen Leigh (R)

10:35am - After a brief break, we set off up the Glen Leigh branch...

Next - The Glen Leigh branch.