Rosendale Trestle and Wallkill Valley Rail Trail

When it opened to rail traffic on April 6, 1872, the Rosendale Trestle was the highest span bridge in the United States. We’d seen the entrance for the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail along Binnewater Road, as we were driving to check out the Widow Jane Mine in Rosendale. I wished we’d brought our bikes along […]

Cloudy Day Hike on the Soapstone Loop Trail in PVSP

Patapsco Valley State Park is near my home — at least part of it is: it’s strung out along 36 miles of the Patapsco River like exquisite glass beads on a necklace.  Because of its location, it’s my go-to park for a hike, especially when I only have a couple of hours.  PVSP is a […]

An Afternoon in Strasburg

For such a small town, there’s a surprising number of things to in Strasburg, VA. Here’s how we spent an afternoon exploring this quaint little town. The scenic and lovely Shenandoah River runs lazy along the town, offering a refreshing backdrop to the town. We started with lunch at Jaliscos, a neat little Mexican food […]

Late Fall Hike to Hone Quarry Waterfalls

The out-and-back hike up to the Hone Quarry Falls will take you just approximately 2.5 miles up a mountain, yielding some pretty glimpses of the ridges of mountains on the other side of a small gorge/valley to a pleasant falls area, an ideal area, had we timed it right, for a picnic listening to the […]

Kayaking Gunpowder Basin and Little Gunpowder Falls

The pandemic has forced us to explore new places to kayak, in addition to our favorite standards: Piney Run Lake, Trap Pond, Centennial Lake and Daniels in Patapsco Valley State Park. That day last summer, we launched from Mariner Point Park onto the Gunpowder River. Along the way we encountered on one or two others […]

Hike to Dark Hollow Falls

IT sounds like an ominous thing, Dark Hollow Falls — there should be a ghost story or something associated with it, but I couldn’t find any mention of ghosts, nor how Dark Hollow Falls got its name, although I could well imagine how shady and dark the falls would be if the leaves still fluttered […]

Kaaterskill Falls in Catskill Park

Kaaterskill Falls is a two-stage waterfall on Spruce Creek in the eastern Catskill Mountains of New York, in the Kaaterskill Wild Forest. Kaaterskill Falls is one of the country’s oldest tourist attractions and has been depicted in many paintings, poems, and books since the 1800s.  The popular hike out to see the falls from Laurel […]

Hiking on the Sweet Air Loop in Gunpowder Falls State Park

The hike we’d picked out was loop in the Sweet Air Area of the Gunpowder Falls State Park, following first the Little Gunpowder Trail, marked in white blazes, and then a yellow-blazed trail, picking up a red-blazed trail, and ending with a portion of the yellow-blazed Barley Pond Loop trail. The trails within the Sweet […]

Discovering Black and African American History in the Shenandoah Valley

The Shenandoah Valley Black History Project developed several driving tours, two of which actually combine quite nicely into one driving tour, doable in a few hours. The combined driving tour takes you through scenic backroads in Rockingham and Shenandoah counties in the Shenandoah Valley. Ultimately, this is an exploration of history that rarely makes it […]

Book T Washington National Monument

“We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.”                    ― Booker T. Washington, The Story of My Life and Work Booker T Washington was born into slavery, probably on April 18, 1856, as that’s the date that John Burroughs, who enslaved him, recorded the birth of a male […]

Panther Rocks Exploration

Panther Rocks, located in the Moshannon State Forest adjacent to SB Elliott State Park, is overshadowed by Bilgers Rocks, also in Clearfield County, but are worth a quick visit for a fun afternoon in the woods.  If you’re into geocaching, then you’ll be pleased to note that there is at least one geocach on the […]