A Wild and Wonderful Trip

West Virginia is exotic. People might laugh when they read this, but truly, its hills, forests, rivers, even its cuisine and its people with their lovely Southern drawl all make a visitor feel like they might, with a bit of imagination, be able to picture themselves as being in old-time America, as the country must have been a long, long time ago.

I find it fascinating that just a one hour drive west of Pittsburgh can get us into a place which is so typically Southern, in terms of accents and lassitude, so typically Appalachian, in terms of scenery and cuisine and so typically rural American, in terms of obesity and general views of strangers.

Last weekend, RK and I decided we had to do something fun, get away from home and Pittsburgh for a while. So we called a bunch of state parks nearby and found one which had vacancies available for that very night, all the way in Southern WV, called Twin Falls State Park Resort.



Twin Falls State Park, circled in red. Pittsburgh is all way to the north, near that corner of the rectangle, where you might imagine I79 and I70 meeting.

It was a beautiful drive. At this time of year, not all trees have leaves. But the trees that have "woken up" are in full bloom. Deeper south, the flowering Dogwoods were out in full force, dotting a brown landscape with dashes of white or delicate pink.



My favorite flowering tree. Is there anything more captivating than a dogwood in bloom? Picture from an online source

Very common and extremely beautiful were also these pink flowered-trees, which I think were Eastern Redbuds

The Eastern Redbud, another beautiful tree. Pic is not mine... somewhere online. So much for correct referencing...

We stayed at the resort in a room with some wonderful views

View from bedroom window

View from porch of hotel room

RK took the kids for a little walk while I got ready. There were a bunch of acorns on the ground beneath a few trees. Ani and Durga collected many of them. There were also many squirrels bounding from one tree to another. Durga looked at them, clutched her acorns to her heart and squealed, "No! Mine!"
:)

A mile or so from the hotel room was this lake. Some deer had come to visit. Can you see them?

All the way on the far side, near the trees are three yellow dots. A family of deer.

On the way, we saw this little guy:

Male ovenbird. Image from allaboutbirds.com

RK thinks these ovenbirds are probably also found in our neighborhood Frick Park. But I guess some times, some birds wait for you to come all the way to a different part of the world before they let you see them.

We also saw many turkey vultures.

Kinda ugly, no? Huge bird.



It was past 11am by the time we reached the two falls this state park is named for. There's a mile-long hike between the falls, and the kids loved splashing in the puddles on the way.

A snapshot of some of the surrounding forest

The second fall.

Look! You can get behind it!

From behind the falls

Awesome trip, all in all.