Fall Creek Falls State Park - Day 1

This is Fall Creek Falls in the Fall Creek Falls State Park.  We camped at the park two weekends ago.

 

This is across from the Fall Creek Falls, and I just liked the way this looked with this guy sitting there.

This is the same shot, just not zoomed in as much.  It was a really nice day out.

And zoomed in at the top of Fall Creek Falls.

So I've been wanting a picture of Mom and I together that I was happy with.  So often when kind strangers offer to take the picture, I'm just not happy with the result.  So I found my tripod, and on this trip I took it with us.  Between us in the gap in the trees is the top of Fall Creek Falls.

The other thing that having the tripod with me allowed me to do was to get (or at least try to get a shot of myself that I liked).  Unfortunately while I really like this one, I'm blocking where the falls view is.

The lighting was off though when I moved, but I still actually had fun running back and forth getting the shots.

You have to click on this one to see it larger to really see it, but I just really liked the moon in this picture.

As we left the Fall Creek Falls area I spent a little while chasing this butterfly around.  This was the best shot of him that I ended up with.

This was one of our first stops along a scenic drive they have.  It's a composite panorama shot.  This is another that you'd really have to click on to see it.

And I think this was at the same stop.  Just little flowers that were near where my mom was sitting while I took the above pictures, that I tried to get a decent shot of for her.  At some point, I really want to get a macro lens to get really good shots of things like this.

Our next stop along the scenic drive was Millikan's Overlook and Buzzard's Roost.

This was my best shot of Millikan's Overlook.  The light was starting to fade some at this point.

And this is Buzzard's Roost.  According to the sign, if you sit out here long enough, some buzzard's might come to investigate.  I just saw a pretty view though, which should be even better in a few weeks when the colors change.

I can't seem to remember the name of this falls.

I tried another couple of self portrait shots here at this falls overlook.

This was a real run back and forth as the spot on the rock was somewhere I could just barely get to before the self-timer went off.  I like the shot except the sun was really starting to go down by then, so it's a little dark.

That night by the fire, I attempted one shot of the stars with a long shutter speed.  But I didn't feel like messing with setting up the tripod so it's a bit of a moving blur.  But I still think it looks fun, and somewhat conveys our view that night.

And we ended the night with a nice fire.

My new hobby - State Parks

So my mom and I have a new hobby: going to and camping at state parks.  The pictures from this post are from two weekends ago when I went to Big Ridge State Park.  Mom didn't go with me on this one as she had hurt her knee and it was really bothering her this day.  It was a pretty park but not first on my list of ones to go back to of the ones we've been to so far.

Pretty flower (obviously)

I went on the lake trail to the park office.  This is also the trail to the Big Ridge Dam.  At some point I wouldn't mind coming back and doing the Ghost House loop trail.

More pretty flowers

A view of the lake that I bet will be really gorgeous in a few weeks when the fall colors come in.

I like to take pictures of flowers.

Along the lake trail to the dam is this cemetery.  It's a short jaunt up a small hill.

From the cemetery you can see the lake through the trees.  It's a rather pretty view.

What I really liked about this headstone was that it said she was born "ABOUT 1800".  The man who I'm guessing was her husband on the next headstone had an exact birth date.  I also just liked how the flowers looked in front of this one.

There were alot of "McCoy" graves in this cemetery.  This is just one of them,

This is actually 3 shots that I used a free software program merge into one.  I just thought it was nice looking with the fallen tree going into the lake next to it.

Pine Cones

I was really grateful to finally see the dam at this point.  I also had to decide just after this about whether to do the rest of the trail or go back.  I ended up deciding to do the rest of it, mostly because I wanted to see what the other half was like for if mom wanted to do it at some point.

And now of course for some views from the dam...

The view of the dam from the other side.  I'm really proud of this one in the way the reflection in the water turned out.

I'm really looking forward to a Wild Foods Festival that we'll be going to at Fall Creek Falls state park in late October.  I'm really hoping there will be a class on knowing what mushrooms are edible.  But these mushrooms I just thought looked cool on the end of fallen log.

More flowers

So at this point I had to get back to the car.  I decided to walk around the other side of the lake since that would be shorter (and easier) than going back on the same trail.

Another one where I really love the reflection in the lake

Part of that way back was on a small trail called the Ole Mill Trail.  I thought the sign was cute.

I wish this dragonfly picture had been in focus a little better, but I still really liked the bright blue on it.

And here of course is the "Ole Mill"...

After what was an approximately 3 mile hike, I was incredibly grateful to get back to the car.  But at some point we'll come back to this park and probably camp one night here.