Fall in Pennsylvania
I love the fall in Northeastern USA with all its tree colors and high, clear and blue skies. Chilly mornings with dew in the spiderwebs, and still warm during the days. However, this year, as well as last year and the year before is too hot! Global warming really exist. Our tomato plants are still flowering, no sign of frost or even close to it, and humid air from the tropics. In the last few days, after the first big rains in months, it has finally changed to cooler weather. PP and I went on a hike last week at Ralph Stover State Park in Pennsylvania to see some of the fall colors.
We walked on a 61 m tall cliff ledge at High Rocks along the Tohickon Creek (now nearly dried out) and you can see for miles over the forest below. This area was donated by author James Michener to the state, who is known in Sweden too (remember Hawaii and other geographic and historical novels?). Tohickon is an old Indian name meaning Deer-Bone-Creek. Maybe the deers fell off the cliffs? Turkey vultures and a red-tailed hawk sailed in the air above, and I bet this is a great spot for watching migrating raptors. The maples are red and yellow, oaks brown to yellow (some still green), hickories and walnuts bright yellow, and so on.
Judging from the white bird poop marks, this is the place where the bald and golden eagles rest their wings while looking for prey over the forest. Lots of people come here to climb on the rock cliffs, which is forbidden. There are signs that there has been deaths and injuries, and there is also an emergency phone by the parking lot since cell phone reception is terrible.
Nice color-coordination between my backpack and an oak leaf.
When the Indians lived here the forest probably looked the same in the fall. The old trail we went on could have been an Indian trail and it is easy to imagine them stopping to look at the view over the cliffs. When you walk in the forest you hear giant black walnuts and acorns fall down around you. If a walnut hits your car or head, you can get a real bump/dent.
5 comments:
Amazing view, fall on the east coast in the USA is different from the one in sweden. So is the forest you visited, there's no undergrowth! But you would need a leaf blower to find the mushrooms. ;)
The lack of undergrowth is both the season, the drought, and the deer. The deer eat everything except the invasive species, and in this particular area it was also very dry. In other parts of the forest there were japanese multiflora rose, catbrier (Smilax), blackberries, and grasses. But generally, these are deciduous dark forests during the summer, like Swedish beech forests, so undergrowth are generally only along the forest edges and in gaps where light can come in. No mushrooms this year either, they are all in hiding in the soil. The leaf blower maniacs of the McMansions would have a party here! AREA and LA have used the old fashioned tool called rakes to get our garden leaves under control. YO barely see any rakes anymore, it is all leaf blower monsters.
OK, if you really want to see forest with no undergrowth you have to go the west of the US. It was one of the first things I noticed out there. Compared to the eastern US there is almost no undergrowth, you can see into the woods like an eastern forest in the fall. We should all take a trip there one day...go for hikes in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, then eat firey chille after...
Fortunately the leaf blower craze hasn't reached our shores. Yet.
PP: Sounds cool, not like the forests I am used to. And all our chili is imported...
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