Sticks And Stones

Cleland Rock Area in McConnells Mill.

Quiet

Cleland Rock Area in McConnells Mill.

Hillside

Cleland Rock Area in McConnells Mill.

Peace

Cleland Rock at McConnells Mill State Park.

Roots

Two trees near Cleland Rock in McConnells Mill.

People, People Everywhere

I have been meaning to write a post about the covered bridge in McConnells Mill for some time. You can see the bridge in this image taken on a foggy September day.

Well it turns out, this post is not about that particular day nor is it about the bridge.

A few weeks ago I decided to head over to the park to take a few fall pictures of the bridge for the post about it. I did not expect how many people would be running around taking photos of scenery. Many of them had some pretty fancy cameras compared to my simple 'point and shoot'.

In any case, I wanted to take a picture like this one to illustrate the change in the foliage.


I did not notice there was someone taking a picture in my direction at the same time. You can see him in the close up to the right.

He seemed to be hanging around at that spot. I imagine he was waiting for people like me to wander off.

From there I walked around the mill intending to snap a picture of the bridge.

It didn't turn out as you can see in the below image. Not only because the left side is over exposed but I don't think you can miss the guy with the tripod. Like the previous photo, I did not see him until after the fact. He was also waiting for everyone to leave.

Seeing that every good spot was taken for getting a clean shot of the bridge, I decided to make my way over to nearby Kildoo Falls.


There is actually a girl sitting on the top of the cliff! She is hard to see in the close up to the right, but trust me she is there. She looked like she was posing for someone else with a camera.

Yikes! She is so close to the edge! What is she thinking? It made me edgy and worried she would fall, so I left.

Off to Cleland Rock! I should be able to hopefully get a few good shots there. At the bottom of the photo you can see the edge of Cleland Rock. I wanted to move closer to the edge (not too close) but someone was in the way. He was sitting there when I arrived, dressed in black and engrossed in writing in a journal. I waited awhile for him to move before I took the above image. Two couples came and went beforehand. They had to stand behind him to see the view. Eventually I did the same to take the hurried shot. He was not acknowledging anyone and I figured best to leave him alone.

As I said in a previous post about Cleland Rock, something unusual always happens there when I visit. On that day, it seemed to be true for the entire park.

The View from Cleland Rock

On this day there were two Red-tailed Hawks circling the gorge. The view from here is simply amazing and having the added bonus of the Hawks along with their occasional calls, made it all the more special.

My batteries were getting low so every shot was taking forever to process. It seemed every time they would swing into view either my camera was not ready or I was not.

I missed taking a picture when they were fairly close. However this photograph captured them circling a good distance away. One is the little spec in the top left corner. The image to the right is a close up of that spot. The other one is the little dot right above the horizon line near the middle of the photo.

See I did get them... sort of. It makes me chuckle giving directions on how to read the small dots in the photo.