Chimney Bluffs

We live about an hour from an amazing piece of shoreline. As glaciers moved across the land, they carved the land and made large deposits of soil, rock, and other debris as they retreated. Some of the coolest (in my opinion) formations resulting from glacial movement are drumlins. These streamlined "hills" of glacial till are easily identifiable and can be seen all over northern, central NY. Today we went to visit Chimney Bluffs. Tall "chimneys" of till reach up from the land. They were formed by wind erosion of the glacial till. The drumlin is slowly eroding and literally falling onto the beach, but it is still spectacular to see. All the rocks on the beach are from the drumlin, so the beach is loaded with all different kinds of rocks. The kids got a good workout, several geology lessons, and some hiking lessons. We all got sore legs or feet and wonderful sights to take in.
We walked along a path that runs dangerously close to the edge of the cliff that drops from the top of the drumlin to the beach. I was very thankful that Jeff was with us. There is something very comforting about having him there in potentially dangerous situations. The path along the top was through a heavily wooded area with dense underbrush, as you will see in the pictures. In most places the path is only one person wide and it is simply a dirt path worn by many feet traversing it. In a few places, the path had to be moved a little to the south to avoid being too close to the edge. Due to the wind erosion, and the till being so soft, the cliff is severely undercut in many places and huge trees are simply holding onto the top by their roots and thick vegetation. Many trees have lost their fight against gravity and fallen down the cliffs and are now laying on the beach with their tops laying in the lake. It is a bizarre scene from above, that makes complete sense from below.
The beauty of the place is beyond words, so I think I'll just post a bunch of pictures without commentary. These are only a small sampling of the over 60 pictures I took today. I would have taken many more, but Jeff and the kids kept commenting (complaining) about my frequent stops to get a picture.









































































































































































































































Some of these need a little commentary.
If you enlarge this picture, I think you will understand why I took it. The grass looks as though it is "sparkling."













Jeff dubbed this tree "wicked tree." It kind of reminded me of something out of a fairy tale...something you'd find as you near the evil witch's house!

























Jeff "caught" a lobster at the beach. He declined to be photographed with it, but told me I was welcome to take a picture of it if I needed to. Need is such a strong word! LOL!












This photo just struck me as funny. Look at the tree "growing" in the middle of the beach! It fell from the bank above, and there it sits, in the middle of the beach, being beautiful and green. Whoever said God doesn't have a sense of humor, needs to look around. I see His humor in many things!













Well, I am exhausted! I've been up for 18 hours and gotten far more accomplished than a sane person should...hmmm. The fresh air has wiped me out so I hope all is spelled correctly and makes sense for I am far too tired to proof this entry this evening! Goodnight!

Long Walk on Short Legs

Yesterday the kids and I decided to take Joe for a walk to Starbucks, about 1.5 miles from our house. Joe loves to go for walks, so as we started out, he took Kyle on wild goose chases as he "caught" a scent.


























Eventually, he settled into walking along nicely with us and checking out any person that gave him any notice. Once we arrived at Starbucks, we got him a cup of water and sat down at the outdoor patio. Joe laid down at our feet and rested after taking a long drink from his tall Starbucks cup. We brought his water with us for the walk home as it was beginning to get quite warm and being mostly black, he absorbs heat like crazy.

Joe had no qualms about showing us how pleased he was to be home. This is about 6 steps inside the door. He didn't budge for about 15 minutes, then he moved to my lap where he slept comfortably for an hour or so.













I learned the last time Kyle and I walked to Starbucks that I must take my camera with me everywhere, because you never know when you might find a great subject. Well, this time I remembered and took pictures all along the way.
I think these might be flowers from a milkweed plant? I could be totally wrong, but the plants, although podless, looked an awful lot like a milkweed plant.












Although not as impressive as Mom's dragonfly, I think this one is pretty cool. It's in the middle of the picture on the left side of the broad leaf.












These were growing next to the sidewalk we were on. Even though I took all these pictures, it is hard to believe that all of them were taken in the city, most while walking past a large, university medical center campus.

Grimes Glen

The kids and I went to this great little spot about an hour south of our house. It is a well hidden gem. Off the fairly busy main street of a very small town, is a dead end street with a small parking lot at the end. From the parking lot you can follow a trail up a relatively small stream to a couple of striking waterfalls.
Here is a picture from the footbridge (shown below), looking upstream.












This is also from the footbridge (looking downstream). Check out the tree sticking out of the bank of the stream. As I looked at this tree I wondered why it didn't fall into the stream.












Here is the footbridge. It isn't quite as rickety as it looks, but it does bounce as you walk across it.

























This is a cool little rock bridge that someone made, leading to a small, wooden bridge.












A little ways down from the little stone and wooden bridges is a patio. There is a large area covered with large, flat pieces of shale with stone benches around the edge. Kyle and Erin are standing near a small fire pit.












This little guy was hanging out in the fire pit.












This is the first of the falls that we saw. I think I read somewhere that it is 60 feet high.

















As we were walking along we saw a lot of wildlife. I almost stepped on this critter as he skittered across the path. He stopped on leaf and let me get a good picture.












This is the second waterfall we came to.


















The plunge pool at the base of this fall was much deeper than water at the base of the first one. There was also a cave...


















On our way over to check out the cave, Erin and I saw this creepy creature. I am not sure what it is, but I didn't want to get too close.












Here is a close up of the face of the wall near the cave. I love that you can see the layering so clearly in the sedimentary rock. If I was still teaching this would be a must do field trip!












While we were wading back across the plunge pool, two young guys came along and climbed up this "hill." There were ropes anchored at various points that they grabbed onto and pulled themselves up. Kyle was very disappointed when I told him it was too dangerous to continue. There are apparently one or two additional waterfalls further upstream, but the climb up is extremely dangerous as you can see from the picture.












Here's a path across the edge of the plunge pool. I opted for a wetter, but more stable route.












I don't know what these flowers are but they sure were pretty.












The kids had fun just playing in a shallow pool near the "patio" pictured earlier. I guess Kyle was demonstrating that he has rocks in his head. Actually he was hiding from the camera.












Sarah found a horse shoe.












Erin posed as we crossed one of the bridges on the way back...












...then Sarah had to pose as well.












I took this from the wooden bridge looking toward the stone bridge.












Erin found a thinking spot on a stone bench.












Erin being Erin...












...and Sarah being Sarah.












Kyle with the rocks in his head again!












We missed this tiny waterfall as we were walking upstream, but we did catch it as we went back downstream.


















The last two pictures here were taken from the edge of the parking area looking downstream.


























This adventure was so fun, that the kids actually thanked me for taking them there. They were pretty exhausted though and all 3 slept almost the whole way home.